Upon his graduation from high school Novosel went to New York City to undertake three years of advanced trumpet study before being drafted and winning an audition to join the US Army Band at Ft. Myer, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C.
While in the service he discovered that there were many established jazz trumpet players in the DC-Baltimore area but a shortage of bassists, so he began to learn the bass by participating in the ubiquitous jam sessions in the region at that time.
By 1966, Novosel had left the service and was working as a full-time professional bassist in DC, New York and other east coast venues with a variety of groups, most notably as the replacement for Walter Booker in the acclaimed JFK Quartet.
Over the next 30 years, Novosel performed with, recorded with and/or toured with a veritable Who's Who of Jazz, including Cedar Walton, Milt Jackson, Bobby Hackett, Al Grey, Pharoah Sanders, Eddie Vinson, the Teddy Wilson Trio, the Red Norvo Trio, Stanley Cowell, Larry Willis, Jimmy Heath, Charlie Byrd, Elvin Jones, James Moody, Jimmy Cobb, Slide Hampton, Norman Simmons, John Hicks, Steve Turre, Gary Bartz, Tal Farlow, Blue Mitchell, Jack Walrath, Buck Hill, Archie Shepp, Harry Sweets Edison, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Jake Hanna, and vocalists Billy Eckstine, Betty Carter, Mavis Rivers, Shirley Horn and Anita O'Day.
Novosel has also participated in some 20 recording projects with avant garde saxophonist and John Coltrane musicologist Andrew White since the 1960s.