Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" and "Windows" are widely considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, Corea is considered to have been one of the foremost pianists of the post-John Coltrane era.
Jim McNeely is a jazz pianist, composer, arranger and faculty.
Francisco de Jesús Rivera Figueras, known as Paquito D'Rivera, is a Cuban-American alto saxophonist, clarinetist and composer. He was a member of the Cuban songo band Irakere and, since the 1980s, he has established himself as a bandleader in the United States. His smooth saxophone tone and his frequent combination of Latin jazz and classical music have become his trademarks.
Luciana Souza is a Brazilian jazz singer and composer who also works in bossa nova, pop, classical and chamber music. She won a Grammy Award in 2007, and has been nominated for seven others, most recently in 2024. Souza is considered to be one of jazz's leading singers and interpreters. The New York Times called her voice "smooth-surfaced, coolly sensuous and dartingly agile."
William Edward Childs is an American composer, jazz pianist, arranger and conductor from Los Angeles, California, United States.
Brian Q. Torff is an American jazz double-bassist, songwriter and composer.
Vince Mendoza is an American composer, music arranger and conductor. He debuted as a solo artist in 1989, and is known for his work conducting the Metropole Orkest and WDR Big Band Köln, as well as arranging music for musicians such as John Scofield, Joni Mitchell, Michael Brecker and Björk. Over the course of his career, he has won seven Grammy Awards and one Latin Grammy Award and has been nominated for a total of 38 between the two awards.
Julian Price Lage is an American guitarist and composer.
Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, Esperanza Spalding, Terence Blanchard, Marcus Miller and Lionel Loueke.
Sachal Vasandani, known professionally as Sachal, is an American jazz singer. Vasandani released Slow Motion Miracles on the Okeh label in 2015. He previously released three albums on Mack Avenue Records, Eyes Wide Open in 2007, We Move in 2009, and Hi-Fly in 2011. He is known for his unique interpretations of jazz standards and instrumental music, and is also a songwriter, composer and improvisor.
Duduka Da Fonseca, born Eduardo Moreira Da Fonseca is a Brazilian jazz drummer who is a founding member of Trio da Paz with Romero Lubambo and Nilson Matta. He leads the Duduka da Fonseca Trio, with David Feldman and Guto Wirtti. Duduka is a resident of New York City.
Eric Harland is an American jazz drummer.
Sounding Point is the debut studio album by the then 21-year-old jazz guitarist Julian Lage. It was released in March 2009 by EmArcy Records. It entered the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart at number 13 and was nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. Reviews of the album were generally positive; one reviewer found the recording inferior to Lage's live performances.
Becca Stevens is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who draws upon elements of jazz, chamber pop, indie rock, and folk.
Ben Wendel is a Grammy nominated jazz saxophonist, bassoonist, and pianist who is a founding member of the band Kneebody. He has worked with Ignacio Berroa, Tigran Hamasyan, Bill Frisell, Terence Blanchard, Antonio Sanchez, Gerald Clayton, Taylor Eigsti, Linda May Han Oh, Eric Harland, Moonchild, Louis Cole, Daedelus, Snoop Dogg and the artist formerly known as Prince
Dayna Stephens is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. In addition to leading his own group, Stephens has performed extensively with Kenny Barron, Ambrose Akinmusire, Taylor Eigsti, Julian Lage, Eric Harland, and Gerald Clayton. Stephens grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Berkeley High School. He went on to study at the Berklee School of Music and later at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.
This World is a band founded in 1995 by brothers Lee Kohler and Rob Kohler in Bozeman, Montana. Lee is well known as a church organist, having performed with The Temptations and Bo Diddley. Rob is well known as a bassist and educator, teaching at the Stanford Jazz Workshop since 1991 and having performed/recorded with Danny Gottlieb, Julian Lage, Taylor Eigsti, Jeff Ballard, John Stowell, Alice Di Micele, and Michelle Shocked.
Vadim Neselovskyi is a Ukrainian pianist and composer based in New York City. He currently serves as a professor of jazz piano at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Neselovskyi joined 6-Time Grammy Winner Gary Burton’s Generations Quintet of future all-stars including Julian Lage, Luques Curtis, and James Williams in 2004 and has been working as Gary Burton’s pianist and arranger for more than a decade, touring the US, Europe, and Japan. His recent appearances with Burton include Newport Jazz Festival, Chicago Jazz Festival and Detroit Jazz Festival. His work can be heard on three Gary Burton’s recordings: Next Generation (Concord) as a pianist, composer and arranger, If You Love Me as an arranger and on Common Ground as a composer. The "Next Generation" CD has reached Nr.1 on Jazzweek chart in US on April 27, 2005.
The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held in and around the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles on March 14, 2021. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020. The nominations were revealed via a virtual livestream on November 24, 2020. The performers for the ceremony were announced on March 7, 2021. South African comedian Trevor Noah hosted the ceremony.
This is a timeline documenting events of jazz in the year 2021.
