DL: Well, she was a composition student at NYU, and she plays oboe. She studied with Joe Lovano. She had a tape of a band, and as I do get tapes from people all over the world from those who want my comments for whatever it worth. And I believe that's how we met. She has a degree in jazz composition from NYU, and she also studied at Berklee College of Music. First of all, she plays oboe, an instrument that's not synonymous with jazz, to say the least, and very difficult. We have a good thing- because the oboe and the soprano sax have similarities in tone and color and even the way they look- so, it's been great to be able to have her be with me on many recordings for another voice.

The other thing is that she has a great talent for composition. In fact, she has a couple of tunes on the records. I don't know offhand how many we've recorded of hers, but she's really a very gifted composer. In a way, she's a better composer than me in the sense that's she's very methodical- she sits on a tune for months. She works at it- she gets it perfect. I don't get tunes perfect because I let it go and let it form in the recording sessions in the studio. To me, it's more of a process. But she actually sits down and writes as a composer, which I have a lot of respect for, because that's real hard work, man, I tell you, to sit down and painstakingly decide between an F and an F-sharp and why and when and where. And she's very gifted at that, and that's been great that she'll have a tune lyin' around, or I'll say, could you write a tune for this particular occasion, like for the recording "New Vista," she wrote a tune- it's a beautiful tune called "So Far, So Close." On the recording Songs for My Daughter, on the Soul Note label, she wrote a tune called "For Lydia" for our daughter. It's wonderful to have that around.

We don't play together every day, music doesn't surround our lives. But, she's been aware of jazz since she was ten years old, because her brother studied guitar, her mother loves music, and her grandmother sings. So she was into it right away, and our relationship- well, music is a big part of it, but it's a given. She was into it well before we met.

VLS: Do you enjoy being a husband and a father?

DL: Oh, definitely. We live in the Poconos, and it's a wonderful lifestyle. My daughter's lovely, she's about to be seven years old. We have a nice life. Still, anything has its ups and downs, and travelling is difficult, and in a way it puts a strain on her, a strain on me psychologically, physically, and so forth. We have to travel. I can't make a living sitting in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, or even in New York City- you've got to travel and you're supposed to travel. This is part of the evangelistic, preacher, missionary aspect of being an artist. You've got to take it, especially as an educator, so, you know- that's a strain at times. I'm going to do it as long as I can, I guess. Probably I'll take a teaching gig and they'll come to me all the time, but as long as I can and as long as the world still wants it, guys like me are going to go out there.

VLS: What made you decide to base yourself in the Poconos rather than a large city or suburb where you would have quicker access to culture?

DL: Well, I'm from New York City- from Brooklyn. I had been in New York for years. I got out of it what I needed and what I of course totally suggest for all students- you've got to be in the center, to get the most, because you're surrounded by the highest level, so you know where you stand. It marks you off, it shows you where you are, where you need to be. And the aspect of networking and business, and the aspect of playing and finding partners and so forth. But I did it. I had many lofts- every year I moved. I always had a center for playing- I had drums, piano- I always had instruments, and for about a ten year period, you could come to my house anytime and play. We had an organization that was called "Free Life Communications" in the late '60's that I formed, along with Richie [Beirach], Bob Moses, and a few of us, Lennie White, Chick Corea, Dave Holland. It was a grass roots organization. We put concerts on in churches, everything like that, we played in lofts, we had a whole scene- it's another story, but it came to a point where I really didn't need that any more, I needed the peace and quiet, I didn't need that lifestyle. And also, just from an economic standpoint, if you live in a place like New York, you can't have any equity, you spend everything- you walk out the door, you spend fifty bucks, you can't help it. And you're paying rent, and you can't afford to buy a place- it's a joke.

So when I met Caris, and we got together, she knew the Pennsylvania area, she was from there, and she knew an area that really had an artistic vibe to it. Phil Woods has been living there for years, and it's really remarkable because it's not in the middle of nowhere- it's situated an hour and a half from Philly and New York, it has airports all over the place, and yet we're not in the country. It's "suburban/urban" but its without the pressures of the city. And I really don't miss going out to the clubs any more. The truth is I've heard everybody, and the young cats that I have to hear, I will eventually hear them anyway. So I don't miss that. The hardest thing from a purely technical level is coming home from a gig at two in the morning and driving on Route 80- that is a drag! Not that I work New York that much, but I must say the older I get, the harder that commute is. So what do we do? We stay in New York, and I lose money [laughter]- that's the way it goes!

VLS: A number of top musicians live in the Poconos. I believe the trombonist Urbie Green has lived there for many years...

DL: Yes, Urbie. Al Cohn was there for years, Bob Dorough lives there, of course Phil's band, Steve Gilmore, Billl Goodwin lives there, Phil Markowitz, my pianist for years, lives there, Jamey Haddad has a house there. And there are many not known who live there. We have a festival every year the weekend after Labor Day called the COTA Festival, it's been going on for twenty-one years, they take Saturday and Sunday, and set up on a hillside in Delaware Water Gap. Two thousand people come, you know, it's a family affair, that kind of thing.

VLS: Do you feel that there's a Pocono musical community, or just a coincidental aggregation of cats?

DL: I would say it's coincidental, but it's becoming a community. Urbie and Phil are on top because of their age, and then me and my generation are underneath. And there's definitely something happening up there, for example, many painters and sculptors- it's unbelievable what's going on.

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