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Pete La Roca, born on April 7, 1938, in New York City, was an American jazz drummer known for his contributions to the genre. He performed with notable artists such as Sonny Rollins from 1957 to 1959, Jackie McLean, Slide Hampton, John Coltrane, Marian McPartland, Art Farmer, Freddie Hubbard, Mose Allison, Charles Lloyd in 1966, Paul Bley, and Steve Kuhn, among others. As a bandleader, he recorded three albums: "Basra" in 1965, "Turkish Women at the Bath" in 1967, and "SwingTime" in 1997. Early in his career, he adopted the name Pete La Roca while playing timbales in Latin bands. In the late 1960s, he left music to study law and practiced as an attorney. He returned to jazz on a part-time basis around 1979, using his birth surname 'Sims' and preferred to be billed as "Pete 'La Roca' Sims" thereafter. He passed away from lung cancer on November 19, 2012, in New York City.

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