Pete La Roca

Pete La Roca (born Peter Sims; April 7, 1938 – November 20, 2012) was an American jazz drummer. Born in New York City, he adopted the name La Roca early in his musical career when he played timbales 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 recorded one new album as a leader, Swingtime (Blue Note, 1997).

As leader

 * Basra (Blue Note, 1965)
 * Turkish Women at the Bath (Douglas, 1967; also released as Bliss! under Chick Corea's name in 1968)
 * Swingtime (Blue Note, 1997)

As sideman
With Jaki Byard With Sonny Clark With Johnny Coles With Art Farmer With Don Friedman With Joe Henderson With Freddie Hubbard With Booker Little With Charles Lloyd With Jackie McLean With Sonny Rollins With George Russell
 * Hi-Fly (New Jazz, 1962)
 * Sonny Clark Quintets (Blue Note, 1965)
 * Little Johnny C (Blue Note, 1963)
 * To Sweden with Love (Atlantic, 1964) - with Jim Hall
 * Sing Me Softly of the Blues (Atlantic, 1965)
 * Circle Waltz (Riverside, 1962)
 * Page One (Blue Note, 1963)
 * Our Thing (Blue Note, 1963)
 * Blue Spirits (Blue Note, 1964)
 * The Night of the Cookers (Blue Note, 1965)
 * Booker Little and Friend (Bethlehem, 1961)
 * Of Course, Of Course (Columbia, 1965)
 * New Soil (Blue Note, 1959)
 * Bluesnik (Blue Note, 1961)
 * A Night at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 1957)
 * The Outer View (Riverside, 1962)