Kevin Whitehead

In 1959, Rollins was a few years into one of the great hot streaks in jazz history when he took a three-week trip to Europe. Three hours from that tour are heard on a new Rollins-approved reissue.

Born in 1924 in Newark, N.J., Vaughan came up in the '40s, alongside bebop, a new jazz style she instantly took to. In the following decades, she proved to be one of the best singers of any genre.

Bass improviser Richard Davis, trombonist Curtis Fowlkes and saxophonists Charles Gayle and Peter Brötzmann are among the notable musicians we lost this year.