Pete La Roca

American jazz drummer.

Born April 7, 1938 in New York City, New York.

Died November 19, 2012 in New York City, New York.

He performed with Sonny Rollins (1957-59), Jackie McLean, Slide Hampton, John Coltrane, Marian McPartland, led his own group (1961-62), Art Farmer (1964-65), Freddie Hubbard, Mose Allison, Charles Lloyd (1966), Paul Bley, and Steve Kuhn among others.

As a leader he recorded three albums "Basra" (1965), "Turkish Women at the Bath" (1967) and "SwingTime" (1997).

He adopted the name Pete La Roca early in his career when he played timbales in Latin bands. Sims left music in the late 1960s to study law and then practice as an attorney. He returned to jazz on a part-time basis around 1979 using his given surname 'Sims,' and preferred to be billed as "Pete 'La Roca' Sims" from then onwards. Died from lung cancer.