Born: April 7, 1938 | Died: November 19, 2012 Primary Instrument: Drums
Pete La Roca (born Peter Sims) was an American jazz drummer. He adopted the name La Roca early in his musical career when he was a timbales player in Latin bands.
Between 1957 and 1968 he played with Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Slide Hampton, the John Coltrane Quartet, Marian McPartland, Art Farmer, Freddie Hubbard, Mose Allison, Charles Lloyd, Paul Bley, and Steve Kühn, among others, as well as leading his own group and working as the house drummer at the Jazz Workshop in Boston, Massachusetts. During this period, he twice recorded as leader, firstly on Basra (Blue Note, 1965) and also on Turkish Women at the Bath (Douglas, 1967), also issued as Bliss under pianist Chick Corea's name on Muse.
In 1968 he left music to become a lawyer, successfully suing when his second album as leader was released under Corea's name without his consent.
He returned to jazz in 1979, and has recorded one album as a leader, Swingtime (Blue Note, 1997).
(Blue Note, 1965)
Turkish Women at the Bath
(Douglas, 1967) also released as Bliss! (Muse 1967)
Swingtime
(Blue Note, 1997)
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