Pete La Roca
Pete La Roca's decision to leave music in 1968 and become an attorney (under his original name of Pete Sims) cut short a productive career. He started his career playing timbales in Latin bands, changing his name to Pete La Roca at the time. He played drums with Sonny Rollins (1957-1959) and had associations with Jackie McLean, Slide Hampton, the John Coltrane Quartet (where he was the original drummer in 1960), and Marian McPartland. La Roca led his own group (1961-1962), was the house drummer at the Jazz Workshop in Boston (1963-1964), and worked with Art Farmer (1964-1965), Freddie Hubbard, Mose Allison, Charles Lloyd (1966), Paul Bley, and Steve Kuhn, among others. He led two impressive albums: the classic Blue Note record Basra with Joe Henderson and Bliss!, a Douglas session (reissued on Muse) featuring Chick Corea and John Gilmore. La Roca started playing jazz again in 1979. He died in November 2012 at age 74 after battling lung cancer.
© Scott Yanow /TiVo
Discography
4 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Basra (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Blue Note Records on 19 May 1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Turkish women at the bath
Jazz - Released by Fresh Sound Records on 5 Aug 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Three Waves
Steve Kuhn Trio, Steve Swallow, Pete La Roca
Jazz - Released by Fresh Sound Records on 1 Jan 1966
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -