By JazzTimes
For the 2021 JazzTimes Expanded Critics’ Poll, an annual companion to last issue’s Year in Review section (which featured our choices for top 40 new releases and top 10 historical releases of 2021), our regular contributors participated in a survey based on our yearly Readers’ Poll. Winners are bolded; runners-up are listed below in order of votes. Contributors were asked to focus on artists’ achievements during 2021 rather than assessing entire careers. An asterisk * denotes a tie. Read more here.