Immediately following the year that artificially paused many releases, in 2021, the floodgates broke loose. It was nearly impossible to keep track of all recordings released between this Thanksgiving and the prior one. And, even ignoring this, the quality and volume made it especially difficult to rank even the ones you did notice. Consider even just established saxophonists; Pharaoh Sanders, Archie Shepp, Charles Lloyd, Henry Threadgill, Gary Bartz, Dave Liebman, Kenny Garrett, Chris Potter, Steve Coleman, and Joe Lovano all produced something this year. How do you even begin to compare them?

Well, our team valiantly tried its best. Even then, perhaps a commentary on the circumstances in which we found ourselves, a consensus was more difficult than usual. I can’t pretend to speak for anyone else, but I have no doubt there were many great albums released that I have personally overlooked. But, those caveats aside, here are the ten that we collectively felt were the best releases of 2021. Ties are ordered alphabetically by the leader’s last name. — Rob Shepherd