Samuel Dockery (1929 – December 21, 2015), nicknamed Sure-Footed Sam, was a

hard bop Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...

pianist and well-respected musician on the

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

scene since the early 1950s.

Allmusic Biography AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

See als
"A Veteran Piano Man Just Keeps on Playing"
''

Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

'', August 9, 1996 Dockery was born in

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a City (New Jersey), city in Camden County, New Jersey, Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan region. The city was incorporated on February 13, 1828.Snyder, John P''The Story of ...

."Samuel Dockery, 86; Philadelphia jazz pianist"
/ref> He appears on 11 recordings as the pianist for

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...

& the Jazz Messengers and composed "Sam's Tune" which appears on their 1957

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

recording ''

Ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...

''. In 1963 he was the pianist for

Betty Carter Betty Carter (born Lillie Mae Jones; May 16, 1929 – September 26, 1998) was an American jazz singer known for her improvisational technique, scatting and other complex musical abilities that demonstrated her vocal talent and imaginative inter ...

's extended engagement at Birdland,William R. Bauer
''Open the Door: The Life and Music of Betty Carter''
University of Michigan Press, 2003, p.91. and headed The Sam Dockery Trio in Philadelphia during the 1990s. He also taught at Philadelphia's University of the Arts. He died in a nursing home in 2015, aged 86. His brother was bassist

Wayne Dockery Wayne Dockery (June 27, 1941 – June 11, 2018) was an American jazz double bassist who worked with George Benson, Sonny Fortune, Eddie Henderson, Hal Galper, Archie Shepp, Michael Brecker, and others. He appears on albums from at least 1971, ...

Discography

With

* ''

Hard Bop Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...

'' (Columbia, 1956) * '' Originally'' ( Columbia, 1956) - unreleased until 1982 * '' Drum Suite'' (Columbia, 1956) * ''

Mirage A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', mean ...

'' (

Savoy Savoy (; )  is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Vall ...

, 1957) * '' Ritual: The Modern Jazz Messengers'' ( Pacific Jazz, 1957) * '' Selections from Lerner and Loewe's...'' ( Vik, 1957) *''

A Night in Tunisia "A Night in Tunisia" is a musical composition written by American trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in 1942. He wrote it while he was playing with the Benny Carter band. It has become a jazz standard. It is also known as "Interlude", and with lyrics by R ...

'' (Vik, 1957) *'' Cu-Bop'' (

Jubilee A jubilee is often used to refer to the celebration of a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term comes from the Hebrew Bible (see, "Old Testament"), initially concerning ...

, 1957) * ''

Tough! ''Tough!'' is an album by drummer Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers recorded in 1957 but not released on the Cadet label until 1966.

'' (

Cadet A cadet is a student or trainee within various organisations, primarily in military contexts where individuals undergo training to become commissioned officers. However, several civilian organisations, including civil aviation groups, maritime ...

, 1957

966 Year 966 (Roman numerals, CMLXVI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * 23 June - Arab-Byzantine Wars, Byzantine-Arab War: Arab-Byzantine prisoner exchanges, A prisoner excha ...

* ''

Hard Drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

'' (

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

, 1957) With

Clifford Brown Clifford Benjamin Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956) was an American jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer. He died at the age of 25 in a car crash, leaving behind four years' worth of recordings. His compositions "Sandu", "Joy Sprin ...

* '' The Beginning and the End'' (Columbia, 1973) - 1956 performance recorded in Philadelphia With Butch Ballard and Dylan Taylor * '' Mozaic ''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dockery, Sam 1929 births 2015 deaths musicians from Camden, New Jersey Hard bop pianists The Jazz Messengers members Musicians from Philadelphia University of the Arts (Philadelphia) faculty