My favorite musical discoveries of 2021

Jazz violin usually tends to lead people to think of the Grapelli gypsy jazz style, but Johanna Burnheart takes more influence from the clubs of modern-day Berlin. She describes her music as existing “at the point where modal jazz and techno meet”. This kind of music has been one my most favorite areas to explore in recent years. This year also saw me exploring the music of Mammal Hands and enjoy two new albums by Portico Quartet: my gateway to this genre.

As soon as the percussion gets roaring soon after the start of X. Adjuah [I Own the Night], I knew I'd run into a special artist. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah's trumpet has a stark, pure tone contrasting to the rich layers of percussion and rhythm. This produces a sound that feels like it could be one the places Miles Davis might have ended up on the path from his work in the early 70's. I've explored a bunch of his albums this year, and can't really pick out a favorite, so I picked where I started, a live album recorded just before New York closed down in March 2020.

Stefano Saletti plays music rooted in the Mediterranean, not necessarily of a particular country, but of the traffic and travels of that sea. Many of his songs are sung in the forgotten language Sabir, a lingua franca used by sailors and merchants in Mediterranean ports. I've been drawn to much of his music over the years, either under his own name, or that of Piccola Banda Ikona

Anyone who enjoys interesting rhythms will naturally turn their ears to India. Sunny Jain's Red Baraat takes Indian influences and blends them with “hip-hop, jazz, and raw punk energy”. I'm not a dancer, but it's hard to resist the energy and beats of this band. There's a lot of imagination in modern Indian music, and I like seeing it influencing western music scenes.

About as close as I get to mainstream these days, Andrew Bird slides between American folk and indie rock with the help of some distinctive violin loops and a remarkable whistle.

There's long been a fruitful cross-pollination between Latin American and African music. Guillo Cros brought together musicians from Columbia and West Africa to make a band that lives with this cross current. Latin American melodies and rhythms overlaid with delightful soukous mi-solo from guitarist Simba Daniel Evousa.