1938 - 2012
Pete La Roca American Drummer
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Pete La Roca is a member of the following lists: 1938 births, American jazz drummers and Muse Records artists.
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Details
| Birthday |
7th April, 1938
|
| Birthplace |
Harlem, New York, United States
|
| Died |
19th November, 2012
|
| Zodiac Sign |
Aries
|
| Nationality |
American
|
| Occupation Text |
Drummer
|
| Occupation |
Drummer
|
| Music Genre (Text) |
Jazz
|
| Music Genre |
Jazz
|
| Music Style |
Hard Bop
|
| Music Mood |
Elegant
|
| Instrument |
Drums
|
Pete "La Roca" Sims (born Peter Sims; April 7, 1938 – November 20, 2012, known as Pete La Roca from 1957-1968) was an American jazz drummer. Born and raised in Harlem by a pianist mother and a stepfather who played trumpet, he was introduced to jazz by his uncle Kenneth Bright, a major shareholder in Circle Records and the manager of rehearsal spaces above the Lafayette Theater. Sims studied percussion at the High School of Music and Art and at the City College of New York, where he played tympani in the CCNY Orchestra. He adopted the name La Roca early in his musical career when he played timbales for six years in Latin bands. 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 told the New York Times in 1982 that he did so only out of necessity: