Fave music of 2021

 Just days before 2021 turned to 2022, the results for the 2021 edition of the annual Jazz Critics Poll were posted. Earlier than usual, if memory serves, and after a few years being sponsored and hosted by NPR, this year The Arts Fuse is hosting the poll.

I mention the Jazz Critics Poll partly because I have been a voter in it since 2011, but additionally because although I have kept lists of favorite albums since the inception of this blog (though much less diligently in recent years), once Francis Davis' invitation to vote in the Jazz Critics Poll lands in my inbox, usually near the end of November, that's when I really start to scratch my head to figure out which albums I want to highlight form the past year. This year was no different, and although the ballot I provided for the poll is arbitrary for several reasons, colored by whatever felt or seemed "right" on that particular day, the 10 albums I ended up voting for (my ballot is available here, by the way) will be very similar to those at the top end of the list below. 

Though there is at least one key difference: I've long since quit ranking my fave albums in any strict sense, and rather sort them into tiers. And although I'm sympathetic to the writer (I forget who at the time of typing) who argued that (and I'm paraphrasing from memory) although ranking should never be taken to be set in stone (fully agreed), doing so is a service to the reader in signaling that, if this list piques your interest, maybe start here. I myself will argue that all of those albums in the top tier contain terrific, singular and are all worth your time. For each of these I've written about why I think so in print, albeit only in Norwegian. 

But to try and offer a couple words of guidance on at least a couple of these albums here. For airy searching tenor sax melodies accompanied by a malleable rhythmic push in supple interplay sounds intriguing, try Mariá Grands reflections on motherhood on the magnificent Reciprocity. For rugged, freewheeling but determined explorations both fiery and soulful, James Brand Lewis / Red Lily Quintet's terrific Jesup Wagon should hit the sweet spot. For a jubilant, celebratory, open minded musical travelogue that dances along on influences from, among other places, Chicago, Austin, Amsterdam and Oppdal (Norway), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten's celebratory Exit (Knarr) has you covered. And if music that soars towards the skies with an alternately shimmering and screaming guitar and a bass and drums combo that boom and propel as if they were the engines of a rocket ship, that's part of the excitement of William Parker's stellar Mayan Space Station.

Those four, along with several more, where highlights of my music listening in 2021, lifting the spirits and mood, providing for for thought, inspiration and much more during yet another odd year. I've listed a total of 30 albums below, because I had to stop somewhere. Many more albums are worthy of a mention, but these were the ones I chose to highlight today. A longer, if not very up-to-date and by no means complete or final list of music that tickled my fancy in 2021 can be found here. And with that. I'm wishing you all the best for the new year!

Voyager Golden Record

• Maria Grand: Reciprocity (Biophilia) 
• Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: (Exit) Knarr (Odin)
• James Brandon Lewis Red Lily Quintet: Jesup Wagon (Tao Forms) 
• Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & Ole Morten Vågan: Plastic Wave (Odin)
• The Source: . . . But Swinging Doesn't Bend Them Down (Odin)
• William Parker: Mayan Space Station (AUM Fidelity)
• Irreversible Entanglements: Open the Gates (International Anthem)

Profound, lasting impression

• Anthony Joseph: The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives (Heavenly Sweetness)
  
• Flukten: Velkommen håp (Odin)
• Mariá Portugal: Erosão (Staatsakt Rec.)
• John Zorn: New Masada Quartet (Tzadik)
  
• Aki Takase-Christian Weber-Michael Griener: Auge (Intakt)
• Wadada Leo Smith's Great Lakes Quartet: The Chicago Symphonies (TUM)
  

• Mach Hommy: Pray For Haiti (Griselda Records) 
• Marthe Lea Band: Aura (Motvind)
• Luís Vicente Trio, Gonçalo Almeida, Pedro Melo Alves: Chanting In the Name Of (Clean Feed)
• Dry Cleaning: New Long Leg (4AD)  
• Madlib: Sound Ancestors (Madlib Invazion) 
• Tim Berne - Chris Speed - Reid Anderson - Dave King: Broken Shadows (Intakt)
• Andreas Røysum Ensemble: Fredsfanatiker (Motvind)

• Little Simz: Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (Age 101)
• Kari Ikonen: Impressions, Improvisations and Compositions (Ozella)
• Emily D'Angelo: enargeia (Deutshce Grammofon)
  
• Punkt. Vrt. Plastik. (Kaja Draksler, Peter Eldh, Christian Lillinger): Somit (Intakt) 
• Turnstile: Glow On (Roadrunner Records)
• Japanese Breakfast: Jubilee (Dead Oceans)  
  
• Henry Threadgill Zooid: Poof (Pi Recordings)
• No-no Boy: 1975 (Smithsonian Folkways)
• Miguel Zenon: Law Years: The Music of Ornette Coleman (Miel)
• Claire Rosay: a softer focus (American Dream Records)