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 Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

drummer and attorney. Born and raised in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

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 Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

in the CCNY Orchestra. He adopted the name La Roca early in his musical career, when he played

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico ...

for six years in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

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. He told ''The New York Times'' in 1982 that he did so only out of necessity: In 1957,

Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He work ...

became aware of him while jamming at Birdland and recommended him to Sonny Rollins. As drummer of Rollins' trio on the afternoon set at the

Village Vanguard The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jazz ...

on November 3 he became part of the important record '' A Night at the Village Vanguard.'' (Only one of five recorded tracks with La Roca was included on the original single LP release of the album). In 1959 he recorded with

Jackie McLean John Lenwood "Jackie" McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator, and is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their deat ...

('' New Soil'') and in a quartet with

Tony Scott Anthony David Leighton Scott (21 June 1944 – 19 August 2012) was an English film director and producer. He was known for directing highly successful action and thriller films such as '' Top Gun'' (1986), '' Beverly Hills Cop II'' (1987), ''D ...

, Bill Evans and Jimmy Garrison. Besides Garrison he often joined with bassists who played in the Bill Evans Trio, especially

Scott LaFaro Rocco Scott LaFaro (April 3, 1936 – July 6, 1961) was an American jazz double bassist known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio. LaFaro broke new ground on the instrument, developing a countermelodic style of accompaniment rather than playing ...

and

Steve Swallow Steve Swallow (born October 4, 1940) is an American jazz bassist and composer, known for his collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton, and Carla Bley. He was one of the first jazz double bassists to switch entirely to electric bass guitar. ...

, and also accompanied pianists like Steve Kuhn, Don Friedman and

Paul Bley Paul Bley, CM (November 10, 1932 – January 3, 2016) was a jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live performance on the Moog and ...

. Between the end of the 1950s and 1968, he also played with Slide Hampton, the

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Born and raise ...

Quartet,

Marian McPartland Margaret Marian McPartland OBE ( Turner;Hasson, Claire"Marian McPartland: Jazz Pianist: An Overview of a Career" PhD Thesis. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013), was an English–American jazz pianist, composer, and wri ...

, Art Farmer, Freddie Hubbard,

Mose Allison Mose John Allison Jr. (November 11, 1927 – November 15, 2016) was an American jazz and blues pianist, singer, and songwriter. He became notable for playing a unique mix of blues and modern jazz, both singing and playing piano. After moving to N ...

, and Charles Lloyd, among others. During this period, he led his own group and worked as the house drummer at the Jazz Workshop in Boston, Massachusetts. He recorded two albums as a leader during the mid-1960s, ''

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

'' (

Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical c ...

, 1965) and ''

Turkish Women at the Bath ''Turkish Women at the Bath'' is an album by drummer Pete La Roca which features saxophonist John Gilmore and pianist Chick Corea. It was recorded in 1967 and was originally released on the Douglas label.Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking *Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...

, 1967). In 1968, with the market for acoustic jazz in decline, Sims decided to enroll in law school. By this time he was already earning most of his income by driving a taxi cab in New York City, a job he held for five years during the 1960s. Sims became a lawyer in the early 1970s, and was still practicing at the time of a 1997 radio interview with WNYC's Steve Sullivan. When his second album as leader, ''

Turkish Women at the Bath ''Turkish Women at the Bath'' is an album by drummer Pete La Roca which features saxophonist John Gilmore and pianist Chick Corea. It was recorded in 1967 and was originally released on the Douglas label.Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical c ...

, 1997). He died in New York of lung cancer at the age of 74.

Discography

As leader

* ''

'' (

, 1965) * ''

As sideman

With Anamari *''Anamari'' (Atlantic, 1964) With Bill Barron *''

Modern Windows ''Modern Windows'' (subtitled ''A Jazz Suite from the New "Soul" by Bill Barron'') is an album by saxophonist Bill Barron which was recorded in 1961 and first released on the Savoy label. The album was reissued on CD combined with ''The Tenor St ...

'' (Savoy, 1961) With

* ''

Footloose! ''Footloose!'' is an album led by jazz pianist Paul Bley featuring tracks recorded in 1962 & 1963 and released on the Savoy label. Tracks from this album, along with alternate takes and addition material from the sessions, were later released as ' ...

'' (Savoy, 1963) With Rocky Boyd * '' Ease It'' (Jazztime, 1961) With

Jaki Byard John Arthur "Jaki" Byard (; June 15, 1922 – February 11, 1999) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger. Mainly a pianist, he also played tenor and alto saxophones, among several other instruments. He was known for hi ...

* '' Hi-Fly'' (New Jazz, 1962) With

Sonny Clark Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark (July 21, 1931 – January 13, 1963) was an American jazz pianist and composer who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom. Early life Clark was born and raised in Herminie, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town east of Pi ...

* '' My Conception'' (rec. 1957, Blue Note compilation, 1979) * '' Sonny Clark Quintets'' a.k.a. '' Cool Struttin' Volume 2'' (rec. 1958, Blue Note, 1965) With

Johnny Coles John Coles (July 3, 1926 – December 21, 1997) was an American jazz trumpeter. Early life Coles was born in Trenton, New Jersey on July 3, 1926. He grew up in Philadelphia and was self-taught on trumpet. Later life and career Coles spent his ...

* ''

Little Johnny C ''Little Johnny C'' is an album by American trumpeter Johnny Coles recorded in 1963 and released on the Blue Note label.

'' (Blue Note, 1963) With

Ted Curson Theodore Curson (June 3, 1935 – November 4, 2012) was an American jazz trumpeter. Life and career Curson was born in Philadelphia. He became interested in playing trumpet after watching a newspaper salesman play a silver trumpet. Curson's fath ...

* '' Plenty of Horn'' (Old Town, 1961) With Art Farmer * '' To Sweden with Love'' (Atlantic, 1964) with Jim Hall * '' Sing Me Softly of the Blues'' (Atlantic, 1965) With the Don Friedman Trio * '' Circle Waltz'' ( Riverside, 1962) with

* ''Scott LaFaro – Pieces of Jade'' (rec. 1961,

Resonance Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied Periodic function, periodic force (or a Fourier analysis, Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system ...

, 2009) With Slide Hampton * '' Slide Hampton and His Horn of Plenty'' (

Strand Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline * Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa * Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * Strand Street ...

, 1959) * '' Sister Salvation'' (Atlantic, 1960) * ''

Somethin' Sanctified ''Somethin' Sanctified'' is an album by American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger Slide Hampton which was released on the Atlantic label in 1961.Joe Henderson * '' Page One'' (Blue Note, 1963) * '' Our Thing'' (Blue Note, 1963) With Freddie Hubbard * '' Blue Spirits'' (Blue Note, 1964) * ''

The Night of the Cookers ''The Night of the Cookers'' is a live album by trumpeter Freddie Hubbard recorded at Club La Marchal in April 1965 and released on the Blue Note label, originally as two volumes on LP. It features performances by Hubbard, Lee Morgan, James Spaul ...

'' (Blue Note, 1965) With the Steve Kuhn Trio * ''1960'' (rec. 1960, PJL (J), 2005) with

* ''

The Country and Western Sound of Jazz Pianos ''The Country and Western Sound of Jazz Pianos'' is an album recorded by jazz pianists Toshiko Akiyoshi and Steve Kuhn in New York City in 1963 and released on the Dauntless label. It was later re-released on the Chiaroscuro label under the t ...

'' (Dauntless, 1963) with

Toshiko Akiyoshi is a Japanese–American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. Akiyoshi received fourteen Grammy Award nominations and was the first woman to win Best Arranger and Composer awards in '' Down Beat'' magazine's annual Readers' Poll. ...

* ''Three Waves'' (rec. 1966,

Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' ( nl, De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myth is likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Du ...

(J), 1975) with

* ''Sing Me Softly of the Blues'' (Venus, 1997) with

George Mraz George Mraz (born Jiří Mráz; 9 September 1944 – 16 September 2021) was a Czech-born American jazz bassist and alto saxophonist. He was a member of Oscar Peterson's group, and worked with Pepper Adams, Stan Getz, Michel Petrucciani, Stephan ...

With

Booker Little Booker Little Jr. (April 2, 1938 – October 5, 1961)
– accessed June 2010 was an American

* '' Booker Little and Friend'' (

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

, 1961) With Charles Lloyd * '' Of Course, of Course'' (Columbia, 1965) * ''

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

'' (Columbia, 1965) * Charles Lloyd - Live at Slugs' (

, 2014) With

* '' New Soil'' (Blue Note, 1959) * '' Bluesnik'' (Blue Note, 1961) With

Helen Merrill Helen Merrill (born Jelena Ana Milcetic; July 21, 1930) is an American jazz vocalist. Her first album, the eponymous 1954 recording '' Helen Merrill'' (with Clifford Brown), was an immediate success and associated her with the first generation ...

and

Dick Katz Richard Aaron Katz (March 13, 1924 – November 10, 2009) was an American jazz pianist, arranger and record producer. He freelanced throughout much of his career, and worked in a number of ensembles. He co-founded Milestone Records in 1966 with O ...

* ''The Feeling Is Mutual '' (Milestone, 1967) With J.R. Monterose * ''The Message'' ( Jaro, 1960) With Sonny Rollins * '' A Night at the Village Vanguard'' (Blue Note, 1957) * ''St Thomas – Sonny Rollins Trio in Stockholm 1959'' ( Dragon, 1984) * ''Oleo'' (recorded 1959, Jazz Hour, 1992) With George Russell * '' The Outer View'' (Riverside, 1962) With

* ''Gypsy'' (

Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. The writer of a ...

, 1959) * ''Golden Moments'' (recorded 1959,

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

, 1982) with Bill Evans and Jimmy Garrison * ''I'll Remember'' (recorded 1959, Muse, 1982); both Muse LPs reissued on CD as ''At Last'' (

32 Jazz 32 Records was a record label established in 1995 by record producer Joel Dorn and attorney Robert Miller. Its 32 Jazz imprint released a successful series of compilation albums. It was named for Dorn's favorite sports number. It also released n ...

, 1999) With the Paul Serrano Quintet * ''Blues Holiday'' (Riverside, 1961) with Cannonball Adderley a.o.

References

External links

Pete LaRoca Sims Discography at ''JazzDiscography.com''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:La Roca, Pete 1938 births 2012 deaths African-American drummers American jazz drummers Blue Note Records artists Muse Records artists 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people