Pete La Roca

Pete La Roca’s decision to keep music in 1968 and be a lawyer (in his first name of Pete Sims) trim short a successful career. He began his profession playing timbales in Latin rings, changing his name to Pete La Roca at that time. He performed drums with Sonny Rollins (1957-1959) and got organizations with Jackie McLean, Slide Hampton, the John Coltrane Quartet (where he was the initial drummer in 1960), and Marian McPartland. La Roca led his very own group (1961-1962), was the home drummer on the Jazz Workshop in Boston (1963-1964), and caused Artwork Farmer (1964-1965), Freddie Hubbard, Mose Allison, Charles Lloyd (1966), Paul Bley, and Steve Kuhn, amongst others. He led two amazing albums: the traditional Blue Take note record Basra with Joe Henderson and Bliss!, a Douglas program (reissued on Muse) offering Chick Corea and John Gilmore. La Roca began playing jazz once again in 1979. He passed away in November 2012 at age group 74 after fighting lung cancer.