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Sam Dockery

1929 – 2015

American musician

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About Sam Dockery

Lived 1929 – 2015 (aged 86). Sam Dockery was an American jazz musician and 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. Dockery was born in Camden, New Jersey. 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. In 1963 he was the pianist for Betty Carter's extended engagement at Birdland, 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.

Discography With Art Blakey Hard Bop (Columbia, 1956) Originally (Columbia, 1956) - unreleased until 1982 Drum Suite (Columbia, 1956) Mirage (Savoy, 1957) Ritual: The Modern Jazz Messengers (Pacific Jazz, 1957) Selections from Lerner and Loewe's... (Vik, 1957) A Night in Tunisia (Vik, 1957) Cu-Bop (Jubilee, 1957) Tough! (Cadet, 1957 ) Hard Drive (Bethlehem, 1957)

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

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Important facts

Birth century
Nationality
Also known as
Samuel Dockery

People in Sam Dockery's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Sam Dockery's

Frequently asked questions

Who was Sam Dockery?

American musician (1929-2015)

When was Sam Dockery born?

Sam Dockery was born on 8 September 1929.

When did Sam Dockery die?

Sam Dockery died on 23 December 2015 in Burlington City.

What was Sam Dockery's occupation?

Sam Dockery was a jazz musician and musician.

What nationality was Sam Dockery?

Sam Dockery was American.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Sam Dockery

· Wikidata: Q787672

· DBpedia: Sam Dockery

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Sam Dockery. https://biography.guide/sam-dockery/

MLA: "Sam Dockery." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/sam-dockery/.

Chicago: "Sam Dockery." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/sam-dockery/.

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