Norman David Musician - All About Jazz

Updated: February 24, 2025

Born: September 24

Norman David directs, plays with and composes the music for his ensemble, The Eleventet. For almost 20 years beginning in the early 1980s, David led versions of the Eleventet in Boston, central Maine, and NYC. Among the musicians who have played with the band are George Garzone, Dick Oatts, Tim Hagans, John Fedchock, John Swana, Seamus Blake, and Terell Stafford. In early 2001, David debuted the first Philadelphia version of The Eleventet and in mid-2007, he established an ongoing Philadelphia roster of players, comprised of the cream of that city's jazz artists. The Eleventet is featured exclusively throughout the year at Plays and Players Theater, one of Philadelphia's venerable venues for theater and creative arts. Additionally, the band performs at other notable locales and events in the region.

In addition to his work with The Eleventet, Norman David fronts three creative small bands that work in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. Two of these bands are quartets, Group 4 and Combo Theory, both with new albums released in 2024. David's newest project, a sextet called Ensemble Six Plus, also released its debut album in 2024.

David is a prolific composer and arranger, soprano saxophonist, author and music educator. As leader/composer or sideman in the U.S., Canada and Europe, he has appeared with numerous jazz luminaries and all-star ensembles. He has been awarded grants in recognition of his jazz composing from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Composers Forum. He also enjoys success as a composer of art music, his works having been commissioned and/or premiered by the United States Air Force Band of the Golden West, the Temple University Wind Symphony, Alea III, The Network For New Music, and Charles Abramovic.

David’s text book, Jazz Arranging (Scarecrow Press), continues to have a wide readership and to be adopted for course work at many colleges and universities. His second book, The Ella Fitzgerald Companion (Praeger Publishers), an examination of the development and artistry of that great American singer, has received consistently favorable reviews and is on the shelves of hundreds of academic and public libraries in the U.S. and abroad.

Norman David is also a highly respected educator. He has an acclaimed, state-of-the-art coaching program in arranging that he teaches online or in person, with students from the U.S. and Europe. He was previously a college professor at some of the world's foremost jazz studies programs, including Berklee College of Music; University of the Arts; and Temple University, where he was the Coordinator of Jazz Composition and Arranging for 18 years.

Norman David: Intention

Read "Intention" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer

by Victor L. Schermer
December 19, 2024

Saxophonist/composer/arranger/band leader Norman David grew up and matured as a musician in Montreal and moved to Boston to study with the late, revered, and multifaceted Herb Pomeroy at the famed Berklee College of Music. While there, in 1980, David founded a large jazz ensemble just a few members short of a full big band called the “Eleventet." It melded the improvisational qualities of a small ensemble with the rich sound and interactional possibilities of a big band. He found it ...

Live Review

Norman David and Group 4 at Chris’ Jazz Cafe

by Victor L. Schermer
May 2, 2023

Norman David and Group 4 Chris' Jazz Café Philadelphia, PA April 25, 2023 Norman David is a saxophonist/clarinetist, composer, arranger, and educator par excellence, and for many years has directed his high-powered larger ensemble, the Eleventet, first in Boston, then at Colby College in Maine, and for the last 25 or so years in Philadelphia. For a short time around the the turn of the new millenium, David fronted a small ...

Interview

Norman David: Forty-Year Wizard of The Eleventet

by Victor L. Schermer
August 4, 2021

A few years ago, a musician friend suggested I go hear a band that was playing at a place in Bella Vista, Philadelphia, a neighborhood with a significant jazz history (violinist Joe Venuti and guitarist Eddie Lang lived there and are honored with several plaques and a mural) -but not much current music to speak of. The venue turned out to be a bar-restaurant with a recently remodeled music room on the second floor with surprisingly good acoustics and sound ...

Album Review

Norman David: The Eleventet - Please Call

Read "The Eleventet - Please Call" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer

by Victor L. Schermer
February 4, 2017

Clarinetist and soprano saxophonist Norman David founded and has been leading Philadelphia's Eleventet for over three decades. After thirty years playing in in and around the city, the band found their recording groove with their first CD, At This Time (Norman David/Coolcraft, 2011). Now, in this new release, they deliver swinging and ear-popping sounds while at the same time offering nuances, subtleties, and creative ideas that generate interest for the more serious listener. David plays a mean soprano sax, while ...

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Live Review

Norman David Eleventet: Philadelphia, PA May 27, 2011

by Victor L. Schermer
June 11, 2011

Norman David Eleventet Little Bar Philadelphia, PAMay 27, 2011 With the closing of Zanzibar Blue and Ortlieb's Jazzhaus, Philadelphia has lost two of its iconic jazz clubs, further diluting an already limited constellation of venues. So it's encouraging to see music coordinators Greg Matthews and Mike Boone taking up some of the slack via a jazz series they recently inaugurated at the Little Bar located at the corner of 8th and Fitzwater Streets in the ...

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Recording

Norman David and The Eleventet - New Album!

Source: Norman David
May 15, 2011

A new album by Norman David and The Eleventet is set for release on the CoolCraft label on May 20. Titled At This Time, the album features ten new breathtaking compositions by Philadelphia jazz stalwart, Norman David. His band, The Eleventet, is comprised of some of the top jazz artists in the Philly/New York region, including Dick Oatts, George Garzone, Tim Hagans, Tom Lawton, and John Hébert. The performance is electrifying, with crisp ensemble work and monster solos. The album ...
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VICTOR L. SCHERMER - ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM "...reed player Norman David...one of the most innovative arrangers in the business." DAVID ADLER - PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY "David writes beautifully, with a unique...voice in the field of modern jazz composition.... [He] plays fierce soprano saxophone, holding up strong next to Dick Oatts, George Garzone and other world-class players." RJ JOHNSON - WWW.ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM "With a seemingly endless repertoire, the band provides a unique experience...It was obvious that David's musical palette extends far beyond the realm of jazz....His style relied on the versatility of the band and ultimately allowed a more natural sound to emerge.... [The] Eleventet is one of the city's best-known jazz groups, featuring some of Philadelphia's best soloists...Each musician was well-versed in the jazz tradition and a conventional smaller group setting where the freedom to explore new musical territory was uninhibited. What made the group unique was that none of this was lost simply because there were eleven players instead of three or four. Few groups have as much fun as The Eleventet appears to, at each and every show." GEORGE KANZLER - THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD "...David has honed an admirably flexible little big band with an often remarkably big, expansive sound....There’s a rambunctious spirit to much of the album...that embraces fanfares, martial beats, shifting tempos, rich voicings across sections and open harmonies...Each of the 10 tracks...are distinctive...This CD definitely delivers some sounds of surprise." KARL STARK - PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER "The tunes often scream with swing or work through some gnarly questions as if David is answering his own riddles." GEORGE FENDEL - JAZZ SOCIETY OF OREGON-JAZZSCENE MAGAZINE "David's writing is brisk, fresh, and, at times, very orchestral in nature. There is occasional dissonance, quick-paced ensemble playing, and often playful, but startling solo work....it's all David's high-flying, challenging and adventurous material...this is...vital, direct, in- your-face music..." GLENN ASTARITA - JAZZREVIEW.COM "...Norman David gathers a world-class ensemble, here on this winning studio session. [He] also struts his impressive soprano saxophone faculties amid his hearty dialogues with saxophonist George Garzone, trumpeter Tim Hagans and others. Seasoned with memorable hooks and articulate thematic-engineering outbreaks,...an all-telling characteristic of the leader's musicality. The program is not designed with an autocratic, music by numbers approach due to the great sensitivity and emotive aspects sprinkled throughout the program. Hence, it's an album that should stand tall amid the hordes of less spectacular endeavors." VICTOR L. SCHERMER - ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM "They deliver a relentlessly swinging and ear-popping sound while at the same time offering nuances, subtleties, and creative ideas that generate interest for the more serious listener. David...plays a mean soprano saxophone...while contributing superb arrangements of originals and standards that evoke echoes of great predecessors...while maintaining a distinct sound of its own. That sound has the precision, timing, and expression of a small group along with the dynamic energy of a big band....Overall, this was a five-star show by a tight, grooving ensemble..."

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