DL: Well, musically, it just goes on and on with projects. One of my next projects to be released is Puccini Opera Arias. I'm an eclectic, which has been the mainstay of my life, and it's going to keep going as far as the art goes. Also, the education thing- I'm still looking for a way to do a little bit more, express it more and more, meaning more direct contact with people who need some help. I feel like when we talk music and jazz especially and the people I live with and am around in the world, we're a very privileged class. We're usually economically well off, we're up there, we're doing OK. That's great, and it's not that those people therefore don't need inspiration and that I shouldn't be part of that.

But, more and more, all the tragedy that's around, from the kid in the street to whatever, I feel like there's got to be some way to get more in tune to that for my life. I need to begin to do something like that. I'm still busy bringing up a child and living that life, and it's not easy to do now, but I look towards the time, maybe in my sixties, working with people, especially sick people. I think people need help, and people like us who have led a great life really for the most part- we gotta do it, you know, that's what you're supposed to do. I don't see any other reason to be alive. Once you've made your mark, so to say, what more is there to do? Keep hittin' the nail on the head? I'm getting tired of it. So I really don't even know what's going to happen with the music thing in ten years or so. That's a big unknown and it's something on my mind these days.

VLS: Do you feel that jazz has a strong future? Do you see any merger between jazz and classical music? What are the new developments in jazz that you feel are important?

DL: Well, on Monday [September 28, 1998, two days after the interview took place], I'm going to Dublin, Ireland to play a concerto for saxophone and orchestra with the RTE, which is the symphony orchestra of Dublin, written for me by Bill Dobbins. So, I've been delving into the classical area. It's not a classical piece, it's not a jazz piece, it's Copeland-ish, with me improvising. It's hard to describe- it's a wonderful piece, and we've done several of these over the years. So that's a classical thing, and of course the world music thing, as we discussed, is very "in vogue" now, it's very chic, bring in a drum from an unpronounceable place, with another drum from another unpronounceable place, playing a tune that can't be pronounced, in a jazz group in a club in the middle of Illinois or something. this is all happening.

My feeling is that what's going on in the world, the reflection in jazz is absolutely accurate, that there's a complete mixture and fusion of all elements put together. There is no more pure jazz. Maybe Wynton Marsalis would say there is, and from his standpoint, I would have to agree, but for me there is no such thing as pure jazz any more- the world is too large, it's too fast, communication is too quick, what people hear and are exposed to, nothing can be pure anymore. This is the best thing that's happening in jazz. Because this will keep it alive. Because the truth is you can't keep hittin' Louis Armstrong on the head and you can't keep hittin' Coltrane on the head. It has been done, and been done better. It will continue to be done by a certain segment of people who love that, but the only future for jazz for me is the input from the world outside of where jazz came from, outside of American and European influences.

And this organization that I founded, and am Artistic Director of now [The International Association of Schools of Jazz], not this organization per se, but the idea that people, you know, some cat from Jakarta plays gamalon, some cat from Hong Kong who plays an instrument you can't pronounce, who'll learn "All Blues" or "Mr. PC," and put his spin on it, and then something will come out, and this whole thing is the future of jazz to me- that's the hope. Because otherwise, we are in that museum, serious, where baroque music is, we are in the museum- it is stultified- it is dead- it's a great art form- just like English literature, it's not alive, it has nothing to do with the current world, in a sense. You know, I'm a part of it, and I'm a dinosaur already, but because of my teaching, and because I'm in touch with a lot of people around the world, I do see a glimmer of hope- I see China, I see Thailand, I see the East, I see South America, I see Africa, I see these people getting in there, bringing their stuff, and when they hear jazz, they're going to go, man that's the best thing that ever happened- it's freedom, individual creativity, there's a whole history to learn. How does a Chinese violinist get to Bach- where did that come from? And yet there are thousands of Asians walkin' around playin' Bach! And they love it, and have an affinity for it. I feel that that's what's going to happen with jazz outside of the American and European influences. To me, that's the best thing happening.

The terrible thing happening at the same time is that it's commercial, that it's on the media, that they co-opted it, it's part of the entertainment business, it's on B.E.T., it's selling perfume and sneakers, a Honda ad has Coltrane playing "Naima." This is the other side, the death of it in a certain way. And then there is the academic death of it too- and, after all, I'm part of the problem. We have put it into books, we've given you a system from A to Z, if you do A and B and C you come out a pretty good player. We put it in the academy, and that's also spelled the death of a living art form too in a certain way. So that is the negative side of it. There's a need for learning and a desire for people to know about it, and of course I respect that and am part of it, but there's that line between how much is fossilized, academized, put in there in stone, and how much of it is found by an individual sitting with a saxophone on the street somewhere playing something that's him using the influences around him, which is where it all started anyway. So this is what's going on now, the parallel things that are happening. But if you're out there in the real world, overseas, and you see what's going on internationally, you get a little bit of hope that this thing could actually stay alive for another couple of decades. That's my hope at least.

VLS: Dave, you're an incredible spokesman for jazz. I has indeed been an honor to come here today to speak with you.

DL: Thank you for your interest. Some great questions, you did great research, man.

VLS: Thanks.