Pete La Roca

American jazz drummer Born : April 07, 1938 in New York City, New York. Died : November 19, 2012 in New York City, New York. (Cancer) Pete played 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, Steve Kuhn and many others. As a leader he made 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 and then practice law. He returned to jazz on a part-time basis in the late 1970s using his given surname 'Sims,' and preferred to be billed as "Pete 'La Roca' Sims" from that point on.