Born Pete Sims on April 7, 1938, in Harlem, New York, Pete La Roca was a jazz drummer best known for his work with John Coltrane, Art Farmer, Sonny Rollins, Mose Allison, Jackie McLean, Marian McPartland, Freddie Hubbard, and many others. Although born with the surname Sims, he changed it to La Roca early in his career when he performed in Latin bands. Raised in Harlem, he studied percussion at the High School of Music and Art and at the City College of New York. He was discovered in 1957 by jazz drummer Max Roach, who recommended him to saxophonist Sonny Rollins. Pete La Roca appears on Rollins’ A Night at the Village Vanguard (1957). Two years later, he appeared on Jackie McLean’s New Soil album. Through the first half of the 1960s, he recorded with Bill Barron, Paul Bley, Jaki Byard, Johnny Coles, Slide Hampton, Freddie Hubbard, Booker Little, and many others. In 1965, he released Basra, his first album as a leader. He followed that with his album Turkish Women at the Bath (1967). With popularity in acoustic jazz on the decline in the late ‘60s, he enrolled in law school. In the early 1970s, he became a lawyer but returned to jazz part-time in the late ‘70s but did not release his next album, Swingtime, until 1997. Pete La Roca died on November 20, 2012, at the age of 74.
