Drummers · 1938–2012

Pete La Roca

American drummer (1938–2012)

Born: 7 April 1938
New York City
Died: 19 November 2012
New York City
Country: United States
Record labels: Blue Note

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.

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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