Sam Dockery

{{Short description|North American musician}}

Samuel Dockery (1929 – December 21, 2015), nicknamed Sure-Footed Sam, was a hard bop pianist and well-respected musician on the Philadelphia jazz scene since the early 1950s.[{{Allmusic|class=artist|id=p71412/biography|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic Biography]. See also:[http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB32D9AEBFE90FD&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM "A Veteran Piano Man Just Keeps on Playing"], Philadelphia Inquirer, August 9, 1996 Dockery was born in Camden, New Jersey.[http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/20151228_Samuel_Dockery__86__Philadelphia_jazz_pianist.html "Samuel Dockery, 86; Philadelphia jazz pianist"] He appears on 11 recordings as the pianist for Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers and composed "Sam's Tune" which appears on their 1957 Blue Note recording Ritual.Alan Goldsher, [https://books.google.com/books?id=JXJSXSa9zSwC&dq=%22Sam+Dockery%22+jazz&pg=PA119 Hard bop academy: the sidemen of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers], Hal Leonard Corporation, 2002, p. 91. {{ISBN|0-634-03793-5}} In 1963 he was the pianist for Betty Carter's extended engagement at Birdland,William R. Bauer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-7lMqpernq0C&dq=%22Sam+Dockery%22+Carter+birdland&pg=PA91 Open the Door: The Life and Music of Betty Carter], University of Michigan Press, 2003, p.91.{{ISBN|0472067915}} 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.