David Sager, was born in Takoma Park, Maryland on March 22, 1958. He grew up in a very musical home. His maternal grandmother and her brothers were all professional musicians in Washington D.C. and New York. In fact David's great-uncle Nat Brusiloff had at one time been a musical director at CBS and was Kate Smith's first radio conductor.
David began trombone lessons at the age of 9 with Robert Isele who had been solo trombonist with the United States Marine Band. David's other teachers included Allen Ostrander, Milt Stevens, John Marcellus, John Mellick and Robert Tennyson.
Since before his starting the trombone David was attracted to the sounds of jazz and swing music from the 1920s, 30s and 40s. This led him to collecting old 78s and eventually spurred his interest further to early 20th century music styles which in turn expanded his collecting interests to old phonographs and cylinder recordings.
David attended Ithaca College and Towson State University receiving a BS in music education in 1981.
In 1983 David's love for classic jazz music led him to New Orleans where he lived for 12 years playing with top musicians of the crescent city. In 1985 David joined the band led by chanteuse, Banu Gibson. This proved an ideal setting for Sager in that the Gibson band's focus was to present early jazz and swing with un-affected authenticity and authority. David's affiliation with Banu and her band happily continues to this day.
In 1991 David met his future wife Natalie at a musical performance in New Orleans, Natalie also being a Maryland native. In 1995 they both returned to their home state where David began working in the Recorded Sound Section of the Library of Congress' Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. In September of 2007 David began working for the Veteran's History Project which is a special project of the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center.
David recently took a two-month hiatus from his work at the Library of Congress to perform in Paris in the band accompanying the hit musical show "A Recherche de Josephine," directed by Jerome Savary.
In addition to working for the Library of Congress David set up a teaching studio at his home where he teaches primarily middle and high school age trombone students. He also leads the Washington Conservatory of Music Traditional Jazz Band and The David Sager Jazz Club. Both groups appear around the Washington, DC area.
In 2005 David, along with his longtime friend Doug Benson, began work on what would become a monumental reissue of the recordings of the 1923 King Oliver Jazz Band. Released in the autumn of 2006, "King Oliver, Off The Record: The Complete 1923 Jazz Band Recordings." The two-disc set netted Benson world-wide praise for his audio restoration. For his insightful liner notes, David was nominated for a Grammy Award.
In May of 2007, David received his Master's in Jazz History and Research through Rutgers University. This program is under the supervision of Dr. Lewis Porter, author of the definitive biography of saxophonist John Coltrane (John Coltrane, His Life and Music). Through his association with this program David was asked to contribute to The Cambridge Companion to Jazz and Current Musicology.
David has appeared at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, The Oslo Jazz Festival, The Ascona New Orleans Jazz Festival and many others. He is heard on the soundtrack for the film "Bix, An Interpretation of a Legend" and has recorded extensively.