What are good Avant-Garde jazz musicians/bands?

I really like Mingus, Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy, and especially Sun Ra. Unfortunatly, I don't have any friends who like the same kind of music I do, and I really want to listen to more avant-garde jazz music. Sun-Ra is by far my favorite, and anything that sounds like him would be best.

Thanks.

Here are some suggestions:
Ornette Coleman
Anthony Braxton
Don Cherry
Frank Zappa (his instrumental stuff)
Leroy Jenkins
Carla Bley

And more recently:
Medeski, Martin and Wood
John Zorn
Bill Frisell

Try Gary Bartz, especially "Follow The Medicine Man" Eddie Harris "Silver Cycles"

Try Pharoah Sanders, The Bad Plus, Paul Motian (I Have The Room Above Her w/ Joe Lovano & Bill Frissel), Martin, Medeski, Wood as mentioned before, John Abercrombie, Weather Report.

Happy Listening

There are lots of Avant-Garde choices out there. John Coltrane and Miles Davis both got into teh Avant-Garde genre towards the end of their playing careers. I have another band you should check out. Horace Tapscott and the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. Horace was a friend of Eric Dolphy's. He never got the national recognition that Dolphy or Coltrane got but he was very well known in musician circles. You can get his stuff on Amazon.com. Just google "HORACE TAPSCOTT" you will get all the info you need. You will really dig his stuff.