Dave Dove has a mission: to bring avant-garde and improvised music to our hallowed city. In a region where "jazz" is almost universally considered either slick background music for a steak dinner or outdated New Orleans brass party jams, Dove's recently rechristened DLI (formerly the Pauline Oliveros Foundation) has done a great job bringing important current international sound pioneers like Han Bennink, Marilyn Crispell, Tom & Gerry and Joe McPhee to town. It's a largely thankless task, but for Dove it's a calling, and his dogged dedication is a godsend to all sonically adventurous Houstonians.