Pete La Roca

Pete La Roca
Birth name	Peter Sims
Born	(1938-04-07)April 7, 1938 Harlem,New York,United States
Died	November 20, 2012(2012-11-20)(aged 74)
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Drummer

Pete "La Roca" Sims(bornPeter Sims;April 7, 1938 – November 20, 2012, known asPete La Rocafrom 1957 until 1968)was an Americanjazzdrummerand attorney. Born and raised inHarlemby a pianist mother and a stepfather who played trumpet, he was introduced to jazz by his uncle Kenneth Bright, a major shareholder inCircle Recordsand the manager of rehearsal spaces above theLafayette Theater.Sims studied percussion at theHigh School of Music and Artand at theCity College of New York,where he playedtympaniin the CCNY Orchestra.He adopted the name La Roca early in his musical career, when he playedtimbalesfor six years inLatinbands.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 toldThe New York Timesin 1982 that he did so only out of necessity:

I can't deny that I once played under the name La Roca, but I have to insist that my name is Peter Sims with La Roca in brackets or in quotes. For 16 or 17 years, when I have not been playing the music, people have known me as Sims....When I was 14 or 15, I thought [ "La Roca" ] was clever; right now, it's an embarrassment. I thought that it would be something that people would probably remember - boy, was I ever right on that one! I can't make my conversion.

In 1957,Max Roachbecame aware of him while jamming atBirdlandand recommended him toSonny Rollins.As drummer of Rollins' trio on the afternoon set at theVillage Vanguardon November 3 he became part of the important recordA 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 withJackie McLean(New Soil) and in a quartet withTony Scott,Bill EvansandJimmy Garrison.Besides Garrison he often joined with bassists who played in the Bill Evans Trio, especiallyScott LaFaroandSteve Swallow,and also accompanied pianists likeSteve Kuhn,Don FriedmanandPaul Bley.

Between the end of the 1950s and 1968, he also played withSlide Hampton,theJohn ColtraneQuartet,Marian McPartland,Art Farmer,Freddie Hubbard,Mose Allison,andCharles Lloyd,among others. During this period, he led his own group and worked as the house drummer at the Jazz Workshop inBoston, Massachusetts.He recorded two albums as a leader during the mid-1960s,Basra(Blue Note,1965) andTurkish Women at the Bath(Douglas,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,was released under Chick Corea's name without his consent, Sims filed and argued a lawsuit against Douglas Records, and the erroneously-labeled records were recalled.

He returned to jazz part-time in 1979, and recorded one new album as a leader,Swing Time(Blue Note,1997).

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

Discography

As leader

• Basra(Blue Note,1965)
• Turkish Women at the Bath(Douglas, 1967; also released asBliss!underChick Corea's name on Muse, 1973)
• Swingtime(Blue Note, 1997)

As sideman

With Anamari

• Anamari(Atlantic, 1964)

WithBill Barron

• Modern Windows(Savoy, 1961)

WithPaul Bley

• Footloose!(Savoy, 1963)

WithRocky Boyd

• Ease It(Jazztime, 1961)

WithJaki Byard

• Hi-Fly(New Jazz, 1962)

WithSonny Clark

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

WithJohnny Coles

• Little Johnny C(Blue Note, 1963)

WithTed Curson

• Plenty of Horn(Old Town, 1961)

WithArt Farmer

• To Sweden with Love(Atlantic, 1964) withJim Hall
• Sing Me Softly of the Blues(Atlantic, 1965)

With theDon FriedmanTrio

• Circle Waltz(Riverside,1962) withScott LaFaro
• Scott LaFaro –Pieces of Jade(rec. 1961,Resonance,2009)

WithSlide Hampton

• Slide Hampton and His Horn of Plenty(Strand,1959)
• Sister Salvation(Atlantic, 1960)
• Somethin' Sanctified(Atlantic, 1961)

WithJoe Henderson

• Page One(Blue Note, 1963)
• Our Thing(Blue Note, 1963)

WithFreddie Hubbard

• Blue Spirits(Blue Note, 1964)
• The Night of the Cookers(Blue Note, 1965)

With theSteve KuhnTrio

• 1960(rec. 1960, PJL (J), 2005) withScott LaFaro
• The Country and Western Sound of Jazz Pianos(Dauntless, 1963) withToshiko Akiyoshi
• Three Waves(rec. 1966,Flying Dutchman(J), 1975) withSteve Swallow
• Sing Me Softly of the Blues(Venus, 1997) withGeorge Mraz

WithBooker Little

• Booker Little and Friend(Bethlehem,1961)

WithCharles Lloyd

• Of Course, of Course(Columbia, 1965)
• Nirvana(Columbia, 1965)
• Charles Lloyd - Live at Slugs' (Resonance,2014)

WithJackie McLean

• New Soil(Blue Note, 1959)
• Bluesnik(Blue Note, 1961)

WithHelen MerrillandDick Katz

• The Feeling Is Mutual(Milestone, 1967)

WithJ.R. Monterose

• The Message(Jaro,1960)

WithSonny 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)

WithGeorge Russell

• The Outer View(Riverside, 1962)

WithTony Scott

• Gypsy(Signature,1959)
• Golden Moments(recorded 1959,Muse,1982) withBill EvansandJimmy Garrison
• I'll Remember(recorded 1959, Muse, 1982); both Muse LPs reissued on CD asAt Last(32 Jazz,1999)

With the Paul Serrano Quintet

• Blues Holiday(Riverside, 1961) withCannonball Adderleya.o.

External links

• Pete LaRoca Sims Discography atJazzDiscography.com
• Pete La RocaatAllMusic