Attarian's Dozen: Twelve Superb Releases That Made 2021 Tolerable

The year 2021 started full of hope yet it did not live up to its promises. Musically, however, it saw the release of several outstanding recordings. Below are a dozen that helped kept me sane and grounded throughout the year.

Featured are the two mammoth and stimulating boxsets from saxophonist and improviser par excellence Ivo Perelman and ingenious composer and bassist William Parker, the late organ giant Dr. Lonnie Smith's swan song, and drummer Gustavo Cortiñas's musical exploration of Eduardo Galeano's "Open Veins of Latin America." In addition, from the United Kingdom, Sons of Kemet's provocative and timely album made the list as well as saxophonist Jon Raskin's socially conscious collaboration with Flatland Quartet. Others include innovative bandleader and saxophonist Anna Webber's masterpiece, ingenious composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's celebration of Chicago and saxophonist Kenny Garrett's exploration of musical roots. Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson's intimate and adventurous duet and two very personal works by saxophonist Maria Grand and vocalist Jen Shyu round up the list.

Anna Webber
Idiom
Pi Recordings


Ivo Perelman
Brass and Ivory Tales
Fundacja Slucha


Sons of Kemet
Black to the Future
Impulse!


Dr. Lonnie Smith
Breathe
Blue Note


Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson
Searching for the Disappeared Hour
Pyroclastic


Gustavo Cortiñas
Desafio Candente
Woolgathering


Wadada Leo Smith
The Chicago Symphonies
TUM


Kenny Garrett
Songs From The Ancestors
Mack Avenue


William Parker
Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World
AUM Fidelity


The Flatlands Collective
Songs From the Urban Forest
Gold Lion


Maria Grand
Reciprocity
Biophilia


Jen Shyu
Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses
Pi Recording