*** Pete (LaRoca) Sims

SWINGTIME

(Blue Note)

Few comebacks in jazz are more welcome than that of drummer Pete (LaRoca) Sims. In 1959, at age 19, he was in the Sonny Rollins trio. A few years later, Coltrane picked him as the drummer for his first quartet. And Sims -- the first drummer to record a free-tempo solo (on Jackie McLean's New Soil, in 1959) -- continued to play with the likes of Art Farmer, Paul Bley, Joe Henderson, and John Gilmore until 1966, when he left jazz and became a lawyer.

This CD is the first recording by a sextet Sims has led intermittently since 1990, and his first as a leader in more than 30 years. Time has not dimmed his powers. Sims keeps every limb in motion. His cymbals alternate between carrying the beat and marking accents in a dazzling flash of colors. His bass-drum patterns bubble up from under this metallic canopy, and their seemingly independent rhythms are often absorbed into the continuous flow of tom-toms and snare.

This busy style would be a distraction if Sims weren't such a sensitive listener. He intensifies and slackens his activity to create tension-and-release that augments the stories told by his sidemen, who all play with conviction and power. Tenor-saxophonist Ricky Ford brings his robust sound to an uptempo version of "Body and Soul." On "Susan's Waltz," soprano-saxophonist Dave Liebman leaves space between his skittering lines for Sims and pianist George Cables to fill. And trumpeter Jimmy Owens breezes through "The Candy Man," then boils over on "Nihon Bashi."

-- Ed Hazell