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Pete La Roca (1938-2012): drummer, lawyer and then again drummer

sun 6 dec 2020
Theme: Jazz

Saturday 19 December, 17:00 CET – House of Hard Bop.

His real name was Peter Sims, but he called himself La Roca when he started playing in Latin bands. In 1969 he left the music world and started working as a lawyer. However, ten years later he returned to the drums.

Pete “La Roca” Sims was an idiosyncratic hardbop drummer who was also interested in ethnic music and wanted to apply it from a swing point of view instead of the well-known “straight eights” feeling of the time. Besides being an exceptional drummer, he was also a gifted composer. In addition to his work as a sideman with musicians such as Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Freddie Hubbard, Art Farmer and Joe Henderson, he also recorded three albums under his own name. These albums will be highlighted in the next two episodes of “House of Hard Bop”, a programme by Eric Ineke.

Eric Ineke