Remembering Pete La Roca (Again)

 

School of La Roca

The Gig, JazzTimes, March 2013

(See also Tears Come From Heaven)

Comments

[David Weiss]

Nate,
If you moved to New York in 1998, you had plenty of chances to see Pete live.
I think by then he had stopped doing residencies with his own band (I saw him regularly at Visiones where he played every Sunday (afternoon I think) for months and then after that he did every Sunday night at Yardbird Suite for some time) but he did numerous gigs with me between 2000 or 2001 through 2005. I remember a week at Birdland doing the music of Booker Little (he was on one of Booker's recordings) and then of course many Night of the Cookers type gigs with him and James Spaulding. The first was at the Up/Over Jazz Cafe and after that a few runs at Iridium. We also did a few festivals. This group is eventually what morphed into The Cookers down the road a bit. Pete also did some trumpet summit gigs with me celebrating the 65th Birthdays of Freddie Hubbard, Booker Little and Lee Morgan (all of whom he played with of course). So....you did have your chances as he did quite a number of gigs in New York up to around 2005. It's too bad you missed him as he was way on top of his game and a joy to play with. He was a dedicated, master musician and will be missed......