More than two dozen jazz albums by artists associated with the Kansas City area were released in 2021. A ranking of my ten favorite titles follows. For context, I’ve added a list of my top ten jazz albums by artists without immediate connections to Kansas City.
The Top Kansas City Jazz Albums of 2021
1. Pat Metheny- Road to the Sun
2. Pat Metheny- Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV)
3. Hermon Mehari and Alessandro Lanzoni- Arc Fiction
4. Verploegh and Baker- Singles
5. Steve Million- What I Meant to Say
6. The Count Basie Orchestra- Live at Birdland
7. Florian Arbenz, Hermon Mehari and Nelson Veras- Conversation #1: Condensed
8. John Armato- The Drummer Loves Ballads
9. Lucy Wijnands- Sings the David Heckendorn Song Book
10. Blob Castle- Music for Art Show
The Top Jazz Albums of 2021 by Artists From Elsewhere
1. Irreversible Entanglements- Open the Gates
2. Mathias Eick- When We Leave
3. Pino Palladino and Blake Mills- Notes With Attachments
4. Nala Sinephro- Space 1.8
5. Sons of Kemet- Black to the Future
6. Evan Parker Quartet- All Knavery & Collusion
7. Damon Locks & Black Monument Ensemble- Now
8. Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson- Searching for the Disappeared Hour
9. Artifacts- …And Then There’s This
10. Angel Bat Dawid- Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1: Doxology
Links to similar annual surveys of the past 11 years begin here.