Norman David: Forty-Year Wizard of The Eleventet

AAJ: Hey, Norman, I think you're leaving something out that's really important. It's not just a matter of making the right choices. Today, we have much less of a collective community of players with similar aspirations out there playing gigs and learning from one another. That's how all the great jazz developed-through musicians working around together and learning from one another. That's how they decide—together -what makes something good, and then they can tell from audience reactions what the listeners really enjoy and appreciate.

ND: Here's a thing that's related to what you're saying. I love it when I hear a really great musician play somebody else's music. I was talking with J. Michael Harrison of WRTI. He asked me why I do what I do. And I said, "This is going to be the most boring answer ever: I do it because I love it."

AAJ: There's nothing boring about that!"

ND: I do it because I can't do anything else! I don't wanna do anything else! If you spend years and years trying to perfect something, you're not going to want to do anything else.

AAJ: The pianist/composer Alan Broadbent said something very similar. He told me that he tries to teach his students that to be a musician you have to have a total passion for it, that you simply cannot not pursue it. The best music comes out when there's something in the musician that drives them to express themselves through their playing or composing. I guess you could say that's what we call the musician's unique "voice."

ND: Believe me, I've tried other careers where I could make a lot of money, but I wasn't happy. I always come back to music. All I want to do is play and write music. There's a part of me, of course, that wants to be world famous, but that doesn't matter. Take The Eleventet. They're not world famous in the usual sense, no gold or platinum records, Grammies, whatever. But musicians everywhere know about the band. Word gets around that we're doing something exciting, and that's the kind of recognition that's important to me.

But we're living in a world where it's even harder than it always has been to develop real creative artistry. It's harder to simply experience music and other things deeply and through rapt attention.

AAJ: Yes. There's a cultural madness that discourages really being in the here-and-now, with patience and devotion.

ND: I did The Eleventet in the middle of nowhere in Maine. I brought in the best musicians. Create your own band and rehearse regularly. Now there are young men and women who are doing this because they know how much it helps their development. You have to have things happening, be devoted, be lonely at times, and make sacrifices.

AAJ: The best musicians are pushing their musical envelope, and they're also developing their own voice, their own style and manner of expression that also works well with the group.

ND: You've got to get to the point where it's your life, and no one's going to push you away from it, but you've also got to know "This is valid, so I've got to run with this."

AAJ: We could easily spend another couple of hours on this subject. For example, what makes something "valid" musically?

ND: Good question. The answer will come yet another time when The Eleventet goes into the studio in January with me to do our next two albums. And I'm also going to do another small group album. The first was by my quartet GROUP 4. It's titled There's Room for All (Self Produced, 2001). I'm excited. I can't wait!