Peter Sims (born April 7, 1938 in New York City) is an American jazz drummer, who has performed for much of his career under the Pete La Roca moniker. He adopted that name early in his musical career when he was a timbales player in Latin bands.
Background
Between 1957 and 1968 he played with Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Slide Hampton, the John Coltrane Quartet, Marian McPartland, Art Farmer, Freddie Hubbard, Mose Allison, Charles Lloyd, Paul Bley, and Steve Kühn, among others, as well as leading his own group and working as the house drummer at the Jazz Workshop in Boston, Massachusetts. During this period, he twice recorded as leader, firstly on the well-regarded Basra (Blue Note) 1965 and lastly on Turkish Women at the Bath (Douglas 1967), also issued as Bliss under pianist Chick Corea's name on Muse. In 1968 he left music to become a lawyer, successfully suing when his second album as leader was released under Corea's name without his consent. He returned to jazz in 1979, and has recorded one album as a leader Swingtime (Blue Note 1997).
