The Squid's Ear Magazine

Venable, Phil

Bringing The Light [CD EP]

Venable, Phil: Bringing The Light [CD EP] (Soul City Sounds)

A new Free Jazz album inspired by Pharoah Sanders' Karma, from the North Carolina ensemble led by upright bassist, guitarist and Soul City Sounds label-leader Phil Venable with Crowmeat Bob on saxophone, Ken Moshesh on percussion and Tommy Jackson on drums, plus a work for spoken word with NC Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green and a song inspired by BLM with vocalist Jennifer Evans.
 

Price: $6.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units


EU & UK Customers:
Discogs.com can handle your VAT payments
So please order through Discogs

Sample The Album:




Product Information:

Personnel:



Phil Venable-upright bass, guitar

Crowmeat Bob Pence-saxophone

Ken Moshesh-percussion

Tommy Jackson-drums

Jaki Shelton Green-poetry

Jennifer Evans-vocals

Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.



UPC: 195269238018

Label: Soul City Sounds
Catalog ID: SCS-013
Squidco Product Code: 33501

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2023
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Todd Warner Studios, by Todd Warner.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Phil Venable is a Chapel Hill, NC composer and multi-instrumentalist. He plays in numerous groups including Tragic Assembly and The Phil Venable - Paul Swest Duo."

-Soul City Sounds 7/28/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Upon graduating with a degree in cinema production in the 90's, Crowmeat Bob swiftly went to work at the Record and Tape Exchange and started playing bass and guitar with friends (primarily guitar guru John Aguero) in his parents' basement and in a friend's garage. No gigs were played during those years; they were a freaky little neurotic island in the strip-mall wasteland of northern Virginia. The prevailing aesthetic was some kind of heavy splatterjazz-noise-math-rock-free-improv, with 'frop breaks spent listening intently to all kinds of bidness like electric Miles, Black Sabbath, Messiaen, Sonic Youth, Marc Ribot, Cecil Taylor, Bartok, Last Exit, The Stooges, you name it. He eventually made the move to North Carolina in like '96, where he resides to this day, and picked up sax and bass clarinet while continuing with guitar.

He's played with about a billion bands, either as a composer or sideman, and been gigging on about a weekly basis since settling in the Research Triangle in 2000. Becoming fairly well known as part of the small "free improv" scene there, he was fortunate enough to get to play with a lot of great touring musicians, some of whom you probably revere. And mixing with the indie rockers provided ample opportunity to add sax to various rock'n'roll bands. His playing can be heard on local labels like Merge, Sorry State, and Paradise of Bachelors. Now that he is almost a halfway-decent player and has had a lot of experience writing music for many different kinds of ensembles, he has finally put out a record as a leader: Judge Schreber's Avian Choir is the name he gives to a recurring project that takes slightly different forms, in this case a large string ensemble with a heavy rhythm section."

-Bob Pence 7/28/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Ken Moshesh is a musician & videographer based in Durham, NC. He has created the Ameri-Cosmic drumming system.

-LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-moshesh-b20aa174?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F)
7/28/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Thomas Jackson is a New York City and North Carolina drummer based in Harlem, NY.

-Tommy Jackson Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/tommyjacksondrums/)
7/28/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Jaki Shelton Green, ninth Poet Laureate of North Carolina is the first African American and third woman to be appointed as the North Carolina Poet Laureate. She is a 2019 Academy of American Poet Laureate Fellow, 2014 NC Literary Hall of Fame Inductee, 2009 NC Piedmont Laureate appointment, 2003 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature. Jaki Shelton Green teaches Documentary Poetry at Duke University Center for Documentary Studies and was appointed the 2021 Frank B. Hanes Writer in Residence at UNC Chapel Hill. Additionally, she received the George School Outstanding Alumni Award in 2021. Her publications include: Dead on Arrival, Masks, Dead on Arrival and New Poems, Conjure Blues, singing a tree into dance, breath of the song, published by Blair Publishers. Feeding the Light, i want to undie you published by Jacar Press, i want to undie you English /Italian bilingual edition published by Lebeg Publishers. On Juneteenth 2020, she released her first LP, poetry album, The River Speaks of Thirst, produced by Soul City Sounds and Clearly Records. Jaki Shelton Green is the owner of SistaWRITE providing writing retreats for women writers in Sedona Arizona, Martha's Vineyard, Ocracoke North Carolina, Northern Morocco, and Tullamore Ireland."

-Jaki Shelton Green Website (https://jakisheltongreen.com/about-jaki/)
7/28/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Spoken Word
Song Based Music
Quartet Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Soul City Sounds.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Venable, Phil / Jphono1
Nowhere Beacons Everywhere
(Soul City Sounds)
Jphono1, aka guitarist John Harrison, working with Carboro, NC improvising guitarist and Soul City Sounds label leader Phil Venable, along with input from John Crouch and Ken Moshesh for drum & percussion input, release this experimental album of strange drones, grooves and ambient electronic sounds, beautifully paced with a expansive breadth of concept.
Tragic Assembly + Tatsuya Nakatani
Live at the Artscenter
(Soul City Sounds)
The NC Tragic Assembly free improvising trio of Charles Chace on guitar, Crowmeat Bob on reeds and Phil Venable on upright bass are joined for this 2022 concert at Carrboro, NC's ArtCenter by improvising percussion powerhouse Tatsuya Nakatani, adding sonic expansion and rhythmic punctuation to this trio's typically drum free configuration, heard in four striking improvisations.
Star City Survivor
Wilderness
(Soul City Sounds)
The follow-up to their debut album, Orbital Decay, finds guitarist Phil Venable and drummer Tommy Jackson delving deeper into their free duo referencing free jazz, ambient, no wave, and other forms of experimental and avant-garde music, their often turbulent dialog inspired by a desire to find hope in the world despite a contemporary period of death and injustice.
Star City Survivor
Orbital Decay
(Soul City Sounds)
Electric free improvisation with a caustic edge, stellar burns with titles like "Broken Navigation" or "The Sun is a Ball of Hate", from the North Carolina duo of guitarist Phil Venable (Tragic Assembly) and NY/NC drummer Tommy Jackson, who explore the atmospheric drag on their far-reaching dialogs through propulsive energy burns and moments of dark stellar voids.
Perelman / Shipp / Cosgrove
Live in Carrboro
(Soul City Sounds)
The second album release from the trio of New York improvisers Ivo Perelman on tenor saxophone and Matthew Shipp on piano with DC drummer Jeff Cosgrove, captured live in North Carolina at the Carborro ArtsCenter for an extended, nearly hour-long journey of concentrative interplay, articulate soloing and diverse and authoritative dynamics of fervent and reflective moods.
Yamamoto, Eri Trio ( w/ Ambrosio / Takeuchi)
A Woman With A Purple Wig
(Mahakala Music)
Confronted and assaulted by Asian bigotry in NYC shortly after the start of the pandemic, pianist Eri Yamamoto adopted a wig, mask and sunglasses to hide her ethnicity, about which she sings in the title track of her album, a mix of the sophisticated jazz instrumentals with bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Ikuo Takeuchi punctuated with songs of Yamamoto's pandemic experience.
Green, Jaki Shelton
The River Speaks of Thirst [VINYL]
(Soul City Sounds)
A collection of poems written by and read by ninth Poet Laureate of North Carolina and the first African American and third woman to hold the title--Jaki Shelton Green�-presenting 11 texts with experimental sound work arranged by Shirlette Ammons, a fascinating set of observations and an insightful selection of "political statement, cultural commentary, and an aesthetic milestone".
Green, Jaki Shelton
I Want to Undie You [CD EP]
(Soul City Sounds)
A CD EP from North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green, the first African American and third woman to receive the appointment, persenting her work "I Want to Undie You" expressing her sorrow at the unexpected death of her daughter Imani and a celebration of her life, with audio arrangements by Alec Ferrel, plus versions of the text and music only.
Green, Jaki Shelton
The River Speaks of Thirst
(Soul City Sounds)
A collection of poems written by and read by ninth Poet Laureate of North Carolina and the first African American and third woman to hold the title--Jaki Shelton Green�-presenting 11 texts with experimental sound work arranged by Shirlette Ammons, a fascinating set of observations and an insightful selection of "political statement, cultural commentary, and an aesthetic milestone".
Tragic Assembly
Blood Drains And Memories
(Soul City Sounds)
The Durham, NC free improvising trio of Crowmeat Bob on alto & tenor saxophones, clarinet & guitar, Phil Venable on double bass and Charles Chance on drums notch up their playing, with Crowmeat Bob performing on both reeds and electric guitar as the band explores breaking down the barrier between subconsciousness and expression through collective improv.
Venable, Phil / Paul Swest Duo
Kaolin
(Soul City Sounds)
Phil Venable, the Chapel Hill, North Carolina bass player known for his work in the free jazz outfit Tragic Assembly, pairs up with Tragic Assembly drummer Charles Chace for an excursion into the outer limits of improvisation, the album title a reference to a medicinal clay and a riff off of the Charles Mingus song "Moanin".
Tragic Assembly
Instability
(Soul City Sounds)
The trio of North Carolina Triangle free jazz players Crowmeat Bob on bass clarinet, clarinet, alto & tenor saxophones, Phil Venable on upright bass, and Charles Chance on drums, Venable and Chance known from The Paul Swest band, here in a studio album of seven collective free improvisations using open and often abstract approaches to melody and rhythm.
Venable, Phil
Bassworks, Vol 1
(Soul City Sounds)
Three muscular and inventive solo improvisations on the acoustic upright bass from North Carolina bassist and composer Phil Venable, a member of Tragic Assembly and The Phil Venable - Paul Swest Duo, recorded in the studio in 2022, the three "Basswork" parts are mostly demonstrating his strong walking and plucking skills, at times applying objects to his strings.
Parker, Christopher / Kelley Hurt
No Tears Suite
(Mahakala Music)
Celebrating the temerity and successes of the students known as the Arkansas "Little Rock Nine", who in 1957 set a precedent as they fought to enter a segregated high school, in six pieces written by pianist Christopher Parker and vocalist Kelley Hurt, who narrates the student's successes over the powerfully uplifting and reflective music of a six piece jazz band.
Judge Schreber's Avian Choir
Bleed [VINYL]
(Cort)
Saxophonist and composer Crowmeat Bob's ensemble, Judge Schreber's Avian Choir, is a project name he's used to present his large ensemble pieces involving composition, improvisation, and conduction, here in a conducted collaboration with 15 bowed string players, a heavy metal rhythm section and Bob's own overdubs on reeds and guitar.
Polyorchard (Pence / Jackson / Menestres / Ruccia / Phaneuf)
Sommian
(Out & Gone Records)
The North Carolina improvising collective Polyorchard is heard in this exceptional studio album, configured as a quintet with Michael Thomas Jackson on clarinet, David Menestres on double bass, Crowmeat Bob Pence on bass clarinet, Charles Phaneuf on clarinet, and Dan Ruccia on viola, for the 6 lettered "Sommian" suite of collective and far-ranging experimental improv.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Young Mothers, The (Haker-Flaten / Rosaly / Taylor / Jackson / Gonzalez / Horne)
Better If You Let It [VINYL]
(Sonic Transmissions Records)
After a six-year hiatus, The Young Mothers return with their third album as Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Jawwaad Taylor, Jason Jackson, Stefan Gonzalez, Jonathan F. Horne, and Frank Rosaly merge jazz, hip-hop, experimental rock, electronics, and free improvisation into a restless and unpredictable collective statement, balancing cinematic flair with raw immediacy in their most dynamic release to date.
Tell No Lies (Marraffa / Orefice / Guazzaloca / Bernard / Grillini)
Anasyrma
(Aut)
An expressive and unyielding ensemble led by pianist-composer Nicola Guazzaloca, with Edoardo Marraffa, Filippo Orefice, Luca Bernard, and Andrea Grillini joined by three bold guests, delivering cathartic and uncompromising modern jazz that balances melodic immediacy and incendiary improvisation in a fiercely dynamic and cohesive performance.
ukya (Bo / Lien / Sorenmo)
We Come For An Experience Of Presence
(Nakama Records)
The debut from Norwegian trio ükya — trombonist Emil Bø, guitarist Kristian Enkerud Lien, and drummer Michael Lee Sørenmo — offers a lyrical yet rigorous exploration of just intonation, European art music, minimalism, and British free improvisation, blending intuitive interplay with sonic precision in a strikingly original and deeply present studio recording.
Rodrigues, Ernesto / Jung-Jae Kim / Alvaro Rosso
Meari: Instant Waves
(Creative Sources)
A live trio improvisation from violist Ernesto Rodrigues, tenor saxophonist Jung-Jae Kim, and bassist Alvaro Rosso, recorded at Lisbon's CreativeFest#18 at Casa do Comum, in Lisbon, unfolding as a 28-minute journey from hushed, lowercase textures to dynamic, scrabbly interplay, emphasizing timbral nuance and collective exploration in an intimate acoustic setting.
Weathers, Andrew
Two Recordings
(Editions Glomar)
Two extended performances from Los Angeles and Colorado Springs by the West Coast ensemble of Andrew Weathers (tenor saxophone, mixer), Angel Lin (percussion), Ethan Marks (trumpet), and Mar Perez (trombone), freely improvising with resonance and experimental techniques to craft immersive soundscapes that blur the line between instrumental performance and environmental noise.
Wooden Cities
WORK
(Infrasonic Press)
Opening with an adaptation of Cornelius Cardew's "Red Flag", the Buffalo-based new music ensemble Wooden Cities Brendan Fitzgerald introduces the first of a trilogy of albums, a set of narrative works that confront topics of work, labor, commodity, and justice through a blend of composition and improvisation, including works by Cardew, Julius Eastman, and Frederic Rzewski.
Warren, Kenny (Warren / Hoffman / Ellman)
Sweet World [VINYL]
(Out Of Your Head Records)
New York trumpeter Kenny Warren leads a trio with cellist Christopher Hoffman and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell through eighteen Warren compositions that draw on diverse musical elements from around the globe — without being 'world music' — crafting succinct, creatively engaging works marked by eclectic references, unconventional time signatures, and a free-flowing lyrical spirit.
Symbolist (Flinn / Rodrigues / Carroll)
The Age Of Bronze
(Creative Sources)
Improvising collaborators, percussionist Stephen Flinn and cellist Guilherme Rodrigues join with Irish improviser and composer Roy Carroll, a member of Splitter Orchestra and who works with the amplification and signal processing of diverse objects, here the trio performing an extended improvisation of exotic and transformative sonic interaction through unusual, encompassing soundscapes of exotic and transformative sonic interaction.
Rotem Geffen
The Night Is The Night
(thanatosis produktion)
Singer, songwriter and pianist Nelly Klayman-Cohen, aka Rotem Geffen, explores the fringes of dreamy pop music with lyrics in German, English and Hebrew that explore themes of memory, love, grief, loss, and the night as a vibrating room, with collaborators including Alexander Zethson on keyboards, Isak Hedtjar on clarinets and winds, Vilhelm Bromander on double bass, &c.
Rotor (Rodrigues / Torres / Santos)
Impulses And Signals
(Creative Sources)
Seven studio improvisations from frequent collaborators Ernesto Rodrigues on viola & crackle box, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone and Carlos Santos on digital electronics, quiet conversations of subtle and extended technique that adhere to the session title, emulating electronic impulses and signals through understated and impeccably controlled acoustic and electronic expression.




The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC