David Friedman (born March 10, 1944, New York, United States) is an American jazz percussionist. His primary instruments are vibraphone and marimba. Friedman studied drums in the 1950s, then marimba and xylophone in the 1960s at Juilliard. In the 1960s he was a member of the New York Philharmonic and the pit orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, and worked as a jazz musician with Wayne Shorter, Joe Chambers, Hubert Laws, Horace Silver, and Horacee Arnold in the 1970s. He and Dave Samuels played together in drum workshops before starting a project in 1975, called The Mallet Duo. They also assembled a quartet called Double Image during the years 1977-1980. Friedman later worked with Daniel Humair and Chet Baker, and taught at the Manhattan School of Music and in Montreux in the 1970s.