Pete La Roca
Encyclopedia
Pete La Roca is an American
jazz
drummer
. He adopted the name La Roca early in his musical career when he was a timbales
player in Latin
bands.
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 Basra (Blue Note
, 1965) and also 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.
With Johnny Coles
With Joe Henderson
With Freddie Hubbard
With Booker Little
With Charles Lloyd
With Jackie McLean
With Sonny Rollins
With George Russell
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
. He adopted the name La Roca early in his musical career when he was a timbales
Timbales
Timbales are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing, invented in Cuba. They are shallower in shape than single-headed tom-toms, and usually much higher tuned...
player in Latin
Latin jazz
Latin jazz is the general term given to jazz with Latin American rhythms.The three main categories of Latin Jazz are Brazilian, Cuban and Puerto Rican:# Brazilian Latin Jazz includes bossa nova...
bands.
Between 1957 and 1968 he played with Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
, Jackie McLean
Jackie McLean
John Lenwood McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator, born in New York City.-Biography:McLean's father, John Sr., played guitar in Tiny Bradshaw's orchestra...
, Slide Hampton
Slide Hampton
Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.He was a 1998 Grammy Award winner for "Best Jazz Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist", as arranger for "Cotton Tail" performed by Dee Dee Bridgewater...
, the John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
Quartet, Marian McPartland
Marian McPartland
Margaret Marian McPartland, OBE is an English-born jazz pianist, composer, writer, and the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio, NPR.-Early life:...
, Art Farmer
Art Farmer
Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet/flugelhorn combination designed for him by David Monette. His identical twin brother, Addison Farmer Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer (August 21, 1928, Council Bluffs, Iowa –...
, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, Mose Allison
Mose Allison
Mose John Allison, Jr. is an American jazz blues pianist and singer.-Biography:...
, Charles Lloyd, Paul Bley
Paul Bley
Paul Bley, CM is a pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing.-Biography:...
, and Steve Kühn
Steve Kuhn
Steve Kuhn is an American jazz pianist, composer and trio leader.-Biography:He began studying piano at the age of five and studied under Boston piano teacher Margaret Chaloff, mother of jazz baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff, who taught him the "Russian style" of piano playing. At an early age he...
, 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 Basra (Blue Note
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
, 1965) and also on Turkish Women at the Bath (Douglas
Alan Douglas (record producer)
Alan Douglas is an American record producer who has worked with Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Lenny Bruce and the Last Poets. He runs his own record label, Douglas Records....
, 1967), also issued as Bliss under pianist Chick Corea's
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
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
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
, 1997.
As leader
- BasraBasra (album)Basra is the debut album by American drummer Pete La Roca, recorded in 1965 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars and stated "It is strange to realize that drummer Pete La Roca only led two albums during the prime years of his...
(Blue Note, 1965) - Turkish Women at the Bath (Douglas, 1967) also released as Bliss! (Muse 1968)
- Swingtime (Blue Note, 1997)
As sideman
With Sonny ClarkSonny Clark
Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark was an American jazz pianist who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom.-Biography:...
- Sonny Clark QuintetsSonny Clark QuintetsSonny Clark Quintets is an album by jazz pianist Sonny Clark recorded for the Blue Note label and featuring three tracks performed by Clark with Clifford Jordan, Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers, and Pete LaRoca and two with Art Farmer, Jackie McLean, and Philly Joe Jones replacing Jordan, Burrell and...
(Blue Note, 1965)
With Johnny Coles
Johnny Coles
Johnny Coles was an American jazz trumpeter.Coles spent his early career playing with R&B groups, including those of Eddie Vinson , Bull Moose Jackson , and Earl Bostic...
- Little Johnny CLittle Johnny CLittle Johnny C is an album by American trumpeter Johnny Coles recorded in 1963 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars and stated "The typically impressive Blue Note lineup handles the obscure material with creative...
(Blue Note, 1963)
With Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...
- Page One (Blue Note, 1963)
- Our ThingOur Thing (album)Our Thing is the second release by American jazz tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson on Blue Note. It features performances by Henderson, Kenny Dorham, Andrew Hill, Pete La Roca and Eddie Khan of originals by Henderson and Dorham...
(Blue Note, 1963)
With Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
- Blue SpiritsBlue SpiritsBlue Spirits is an album by trumpeter Freddie Hubbard released on the Blue Note label. It features performances by Hubbard, James Spaulding, Joe Henderson, Harold Mabern, Jr., Larry Ridley, Clifford Jarvis, Big Black, Kiane Zawadi, Hank Mobley, McCoy Tyner, Bob Cranshaw, Pete LaRoca...
(Blue Note, 1964) - The Night of the CookersThe Night of the CookersThe Night of the Cookers is a live album by trumpeter Freddie Hubbard recorded at Club La Marchal in April 1965 and released on the Blue Note label. It features performances by Hubbard, Lee Morgan, James Spaulding, Harold Mabern, Jr., Larry Ridley, Pete LaRoca and Big Black...
(Blue Note, 1965)
With Booker Little
Booker Little
Booker Little, Jr was an American jazz trumpeter and composer.-Biography:Despite his premature death from kidney failure at the age of 23, Little made an important contribution to jazz. Stylistically, his sound is rooted in the playing of Clifford Brown, featuring crisp articulation, a burnished...
- Booker Little and FriendBooker Little and FriendBooker Little and Friend is the final album led by American jazz trumpeter Booker Little featuring performances recorded in 1961 for the Bethlehem label...
(Bethlehem, 1961)
With Charles Lloyd
- Of Course, of CourseOf Course, of CourseOf Course, Of Course is the second album by jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd released on the Columbia label featuring performances by Lloyd with Gabor Szabo, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams...
(Columbia, 1965)
With Jackie McLean
Jackie McLean
John Lenwood McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator, born in New York City.-Biography:McLean's father, John Sr., played guitar in Tiny Bradshaw's orchestra...
- New SoilNew SoilNew Soil is an album by American saxophonist Jackie McLean recorded in 1959 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Steve Huey awarded the album 4½ stars and stated "New Soil wasn't the first session Jackie McLean recorded for Blue Note, but it was the first one...
(Blue Note, 1959) - BluesnikBluesnikBluesnik is an album by American saxophonist Jackie McLean recorded in 1961 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4½ stars and stated "Many critics-as well as jazz fans hold to the opinion that Bluesnik may be McLean's most accessible...
(Blue Note, 1961)
With Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
- A Night at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 1957)
With George Russell
- The Outer ViewThe Outer ViewThe Outer View is an album by George Russell originally released on Riverside in 1962. The album contains performances by Russell with Garnett Brown, Paul Plummer, Don Ellis, Steve Swallow and Joe Hunt and features the recording debut of vocalist Sheila Jordan on one track...
(Riverside, 1962)