Guitarist and composer Phil Sargent is a name to be reckoned with in the Boston and New York music scenes. Described as a musician who is cognizant of the tradition but thinks outside of the box (All About Jazz) and who incorporates melodic hooks into the mix, where superior technique, cunning interactions, memorable song forms, and seething solo jaunts attain a near-flawless symmetrical presence (JazzReviews.com), Sargent has shared the stage with the likes of giants such as Dave Liebman, Jerry Bergonzi, and John Lockwood, to contemporary earthshakers such as Matt Wilson, Bob Moses, Phil Grenadier, and Yosuke Inoue, among others.

Now, over a decade since his previous release, Sargent once more takes the stage and studio as a bandleader with Sons, an album that stands both as a tribute to and reflection on fatherhood and how it has transformed him and his world.

His 2010 release (A New Day) has received critical acclaim. In addition to writing for his own group he composes and has released recordings with the genre bending groups Iskar and The Industrious Noise Trio and many others. Phil also performs nationally as a sideman in the Sonic Explorers, Bruno Raberg Nonet, Rick DiMuzio Quintet, Mehmet Ali Sanlikol Jazz Orchestra, Brooke Sofferman Perspective, John Funkhouser quartet, and a variety of other ensembles ranging from straight ahead jazz to the avante-garde.

With his brand new album Sons (out now via Higher Level Media), Sargent makes emotively tangible that which is held deeply at the center of the human experience: family. To grow and create, to provide and protect, to wrestle and raise up - all this is held testimonial within the vast textural landscapes and sweeping genre fluidity of Sons.

Sargent composes and plays not merely for himself and for his music, but because he has something worthwhile to say, and an audience worthwhile to say it to who inspired it all to begin with.

1. Skyline
2. Rest Area
3. Me Fa Me Re
4. Life
5. Be Careful Out There
6. Bivawack
7. Isolation
8. Sons
9. Breathe

This mighty fine, and expertly focused new recording opens on the driven Skyline and the melodiously free flowing Rest Area (feat. Greg Loughman & Mike Connors), and they are then followed by the Western-hued, yearning guitar-driven Me Fa Me Re and the beautifully cultivated hipsway found within Life (feat. Jerry Sabatini, Greg Loughman & Mike Connors).

Up next are the ambient melodies within Be Careful Out There (again featuring Loughman & Connors) and the plucky Bivawack, and they are in turn backed by the languishing Isolation (with Loughman & Connors), the album rounding out on the luxuriant Sons, closing on the captivating Breathe.

Phil Sargent - Sons [Official Music Video]