Pete La Roca – Biography, Discography & Instruments

Biography

Pete La Roca was a jazz musician who played drum kit. Pete La Roca was born on 7 April 1938 in New York City and died on 19 November 2012 in New York City. The music is usually filed under jazz. Record labels: Blue Note. The discography here lists 3 albums, from “Basra” (1965) to “SwingTime” (1997).

Pete "La Roca" Sims (born Peter Sims, April 7, 1938 – November 20, 2012; known as Pete La Roca from 1957 until 1968) was an American jazz drummer and attorney. Born and raised in Harlem by a pianist mother and a stepfather who played trumpet, he was introduced to jazz by his uncle Kenneth Bright, a major shareholder in Circle Records and the manager of rehearsal spaces above the Lafayette Theater. Sims studied percussion at the High School of Music and Art and at the City College of New York, where he played tympani in the CCNY Orchestra. He adopted the name La Roca early in his musical career, when he played timbales for six years in Latin bands. In the 1970s, during a hiatus from jazz performance, he resumed using his original surname. When he returned to jazz in the late 1970s, he usually inserted "La Roca" into his name in quotation marks to help audiences familiar with his early work identify him.

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Discography

Studio and live albums

Basra 1965 · Blue Note Turkish Women at the Bath 1967 · Douglas

SwingTime 1997

Also plays on

Albums where Pete La Roca is credited as a sideman

1957	A Night at the Village Vanguard — Sonny Rollins	drums (drum set)
1959	New Soil — Jackie McLean	drums (drum set)
1961	Bluesnik — Jackie McLean	drums (drum set)
1961	Plenty of Horn — Ted Curson	drums (drum set)
1962	Booker Little and Friend — Booker Little	drums (drum set)
1963	Page One — Joe Henderson	drums (drum set)
1963	The Country & Western Sound of Jazz Pianos — Steve Kuhn & Toshiko Akiyoshi	drums (drum set)
1964	Our Thing — Joe Henderson	drums (drum set)
1964	Footloose! — Paul Bley	drums (drum set)
1964	Little Johnny C — Johnny Coles	drums (drum set)
1965	The Night of the Cookers: Live at Club La Marchal, Volume 1 — Freddie Hubbard	drums (drum set)
1966	The Night of the Cookers: Live at Club La Marchal, Volume 2 — Freddie Hubbard	drums (drum set)
1976	Sonny Clark Quintets — Sonny Clark	drums (drum set)
1982	Golden Moments — Tony Scott with Bill Evans • Jimmy Garrison • Pete Laroca	drums (drum set)
1983	A Night at the "Village Vanguard" Volume 2 — Sonny Rollins	drums (drum set)
1989	New York, Greenwich Village, Village Vanguard, November 3, 1957 — Sonny Rollins, Elvin Jones & Wilbur Ware	drums (drum set)
1989	West 42nd Street — Kenny Dorham	drums (drum set)
1991	The Outer View — George Russell	drums (drum set)
1996	Hi-Fly — Jaki Byard	drums (drum set)
2005	1960 — Steve Kuhn, Scott LaFaro, Pete La Roca	drums (drum set)
2009	Pieces of Jade — Scott LaFaro	drums (drum set)
2010	Discovery! & Nirvana — Charles Lloyd	drums (drum set)
2014	Manhattan Stories — Charles Lloyd	drums (drum set)
2024	Freedom Weaver: The 1959 European Tour Recordings — Sonny Rollins	drums (drum set)