Norman Samuels
Bass Player & Composer
About me.
Norman Samuels (1996) was born and raised in the village of Lith. His childhood home comprised an old farm, surrounded by spacious polders, meadows and of course the meandering river Maas. All these things had a definite effect on his inner world and imagination. At 14, Norman was encouraged to try out the bass guitar as his high school friends needed a bass player. Soon after, he took up lessons, played in bands and performed at local venues and as a street musician at local shopping malls. After he finished his high school, he went on to live and study in Nijmegen.
In Nijmegen a new chapter starts. Norman comes in contact with (double) bass player Wiro Mahieu, who becomes a tremendous inspiration and a lifelong teacher, mentor and friend. Among other styles of music, Wiro introduces Norman to Jazz and ignites his aspiration to pursue a career in music. In his early Nijmegen years, Norman co-founds Dutch indierock group ‘Foxlane’ and plays as much with different types of musicians as he can (which he still does). With Foxlane, Norman conquered the Dutch Indiescene with several peak moments (5 million Spotify Streams, public’s favorite ‘Grote Prijs van NL’ 2018, Most Popular Artist of Popronde 2019, National Television Debut at De Wereld Draait Door, Opener for Di-Rect) and he played at venues like Doornroosje, Paradiso, Melkweg, Tivoli Vredenburg and Patronaat. During the pandemic, he is admitted to the ArtEZ ‘Jazz&Pop’ Conservatory in Arnhem. Besides his ongoing musical education with Wiro, Norman now receives additional lessons in Musical Theory, Ear Training, Rhythm Lab, Harmony at The Piano, Various Jazz&Pop Ensembles, Sight Reading and Composition Classes. A few of his (former) teachers are: Wiro Mahieu, Teun Creemers, Charles Nagtzaam, Philipp Ruttgers, Jeroen van Vliet, Robert-Jan Vermeulen, Angelo Verploegen, Rob Sijben, Michael Gustorff, Clemens Horn, Onno Kelk, Florian Hoefnagels, André Groen and Hein Buying. Norman (co)composes for various musical groups (Foxlane, The Vonks, Band8Collective, Norman Samuels Trio) and has played/is playing with artists like Clean Pete, Layba Diawara, Michiel Geurtzen, Lottie Mae Jones, Ton Scheepers, Bjorn van der Boom, Slack Attack and Eva van der Sterren. Norman is a permanent member in the Monkeyjam band Nijmegen which acts as a backing band during this jam (every third Sunday of the month at Brebl). He also organises the Brebl Jazz Jam, every second Wednesday of the month at Brebl. Aside from his music, Norman is a chemist and holds a Bsc degree in ‘Molecular Life Sciences’ and Msc degree in ‘Medicinal Chemistry’, which he completed at Radboud University Nijmegen.
As a Bass player, Norman gets a lot of inspiration of fellow Dutch colleagues Wiro Mahieu, Teun Creemers and Jeroen Vierdag. Other inspiration comes from James Jamerson, Jaco Pastorius, Rocco Prestia, Pino Palladino, Victor Bailey, Louis Johnson, Marcus Miller, Stu Hamm and Avishai Cohen, but also from Flea, Joe Dart, Michael League, Johan Hansén-Larsen (JHL), Tom Driessler, MonoNeon, Nick Campbell and Sam Wilkes.