2021 in jazz
This is a timeline documenting events of jazz in the year 2021.
Events
January
- January 14 - The 2020 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll rates Maria Schneider's Data Lords as the best album of 2020.
March
- March 14 - The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards occur. Jazz winners include:
- *Kurt Elling wins Best Jazz Vocal Album for his 2019 album Secrets are the Best Stories
- *Chick Corea, Christian McBride & Brian Blade win Best Jazz Instrumental Album for their 2021 album Trilogy 2
- *The Maria Schneider Orchestra wins Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for its 2020 album Data Lords
- *Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra win Best Latin Jazz Album for their album Four Questions
July
- July 30 - Shabaka Hutchings from Sons Of Kemet founds a new UK Jazz record label, "Native Rebel Recordings"
- *July 30-August 1 - The Newport Jazz Festival takes place in the US state of Rhode Island. Performers include Gerald Clayton, Charles Lloyd, Mavis Staples, Trombone Shorty, Kamasi Washington and Brandee Younger.
September
October- October 21 - Takuya Kuroda releases "Midnight Crisp"
December
- December 4 - Promises (Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra album) is named album of the year 2021 by TIME magazine
Deaths
- January 6 – Bobby Few, 85, American jazz pianist
- January 17 – Sammy Nestico, 96, American composer and arranger
- January 20 – Keith Nichols, 75, British instrumentalist and bandleader
- January 23 – Jonas Gwangwa, 83, South African jazz trombonist
- February 9 – Chick Corea, 79, American pianist, composer and bandleader
- February 12 – Milford Graves, 79, American drummer and polymath
- March 2 – Chris Barber, 90, British bandleader and trombonist
- March 7 - Josky Kiambukuta, 72, Congolese singer
- March 8 - Julien-François Zbinden, 103, Swiss composer and jazz pianist
- March 10 - János Gonda, 89, Hungarian jazz pianist
- March 19 - Cristián Cuturrufo, 48, Chilean jazz trumpeter
- March 28 - Malcolm Cecil, 84, British jazz bassist and record producer
- April 7 - Sonny Simmons, 87, American jazz saxophonist
- May 8 - Curtis Fuller, 88, American jazz trombonist
- May 15 - Mario Pavone, 80, American jazz bassist, composer and bandleader
- June 21 - Nobuo Hara, 94, Japanese saxophonist
- July 4 - Rick Laird, 80, Irish jazz bassist
- July 31 - Jerzy Matuszkiewicz, 93, Polish jazz musician and composer
- August 28 - Francesc Burrull, 86, Spanish musician and composer
- September 16 -George Mraz, 77, Czech-American jazz bassist
- September 28 - Dr. Lonnie Smith, 79, American jazz Hammond B3 organist
- October 18 - Franco Cerri, 95, Italian jazz guitarist.
- November 1 - Pat Martino, 77, American jazz guitarist.
- November 18 - Slide Hampton, 89, American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.
- December 8 - Barry Harris, 91, American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator