2021 in jazz

This is a timeline documenting events of jazz in the year 2021.

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"

 November 

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 (COVID-19)
 * 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 (TPOK Jazz)
 * 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 (COVID-19)
 * 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 (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
 * 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