Brought together by Daniel Kelly in early 1999 to perform John Zorn's composition/game "COBRA," the Avant Collective has stuck together to explore the wide-ranging possibilities of some of the foundations of that piece.

Expounding on the signals used in Zorn's game, the band has developed its own sign language that is used to loosely structure their performances. Though the Collective's live sets are improvisational, these signs keep things from regressing into a stream of solos or a jazzbo free-for-all. For example, someone may sign for a player to keep doing what they're doing but expand on it. Another hand signal tells the players to remember what they are doing because they are going to return to it later. The band also displays a sense of humor by utilizing a middle finger sign to mean, "Stop playing!"

In this way, the band is truly a collective, as each member is able to direct the playing. Members are Kelly on keyboards and found objects, Rob "Gitch" Litchfield and Brett Burleson on guitars, David Reed on sampler, Steve Perakis on bass, Brian Casey on trombone, Rocco DiPietro on accordion, and Geoff Sullivan and Eric Paton on percussion.

The band released a self-titled disc in 1999, which consists of one untitled, 31-minute long piece, but the best way to experience the Avant Collective is live—and more than once because, due to their improv nature, performances can range in quality. Regardless, each performance is to be savored because, as the band likes to point out, you will never hear the same song more than once.—Stephen Slaybaugh