Name: An Evening with Pierre Bensusan
Start: 2024-05-31T19:30:00-07:00
Location: TOC Portland

TOC Presents:
An Evening with Pierre Bensusan
Friday, May 31st, 2024
6:30pm doors / 7:30pm show
$22 adv / $25 dos
"It's Like The Guitar Has Been Given Free Reign To Play It's Self!"
French-Algerian acoustic guitar virtuoso, vocalist and composer Pierre Bensusan, surnamed "Mister DADGAD", has taken his unique sound to all corners of the globe.
Winner of the Independent Music Award for his triple live album "Encore", voted Best World Music Guitarist by Guitar Player Magazine reader's Poll, winner of the Rose d'Or at the Montreux Festival for his debut album, Pierre is recognized as one of the greatest guitar players of the 21st century.
When Michael Hedges titles one of his compositions “Bensusan”, you know that the inspiration behind it must be special and Pierre Bensusan certainly is. Guitarists from Leo Kottke to Larry Corryel, to Tuck Andress, Tommy Emmanuel, Mark Knopfler, Andrew York, Andy Timmons, to Steve Lukather… have sung his praises, and Steve Vai released three Bensusan albums on his label Favored Nations. And it's not just guitarists who are so inspired by Pierre's music, as a recent studio collaboration with him on Donny Osmond’s latest album “Start Again” goes to show.
If World Music means the fusion of traditional, contemporary, jazz, classical and pop music, then Bensusan is one of the most eloquent World Music musicians of our time. A pianist in his beginnings then self-taught on the guitar, the originality of his style makes him one of today’s greatest guitarists and composers for the instrument. Also called “The Prince of DADGAD”, his story is far from trivial and it is on stage that this artist has earned his stripes: among others, the Rose d'Or of the Montreux Festival, and being elected Best Guitarist of World Music by the readers of Guitar Player Magazine! His triple album "Encore" won the Grand Prix of the Independent Music Awards in the category Best Live Album... Since his first performances in 1974 in France, the guitarist has sold half a million albums and given thousands of concerts around the globe, both solo and through numerous collaborations.
Born in French Algeria, Pierre Bensusan is an adventurer of unusual lands. His almost “sacred” music is an intimate and orchestral hymn, a solo crossing on a multi-shell Lowden guitar subjected to the natural elements with sound molecules and finger pulp on an ebony fingerboard for open tuning - an unique and transparent technique, under the fingers of an adventurous pilgrim. Big emotion guaranteed.
“For me, Pierre can only justly be compared to someone of the stature of Keith Jarrett; so total is his mastery of the solo instrument, his dazzling harmony, his many innovations, and his deft command of counterpoint, the jazz idiom, folk expression, and all genres between and beyond. An entire history unfolds as he plays. But really, like Jarrett, the emotional depth – and this is where true artistry often likes to live – of many of his songs and compositions is all, well, breathtaking. With only his steel-string-acoustic guitar – and sometimes his rich, affecting voice – Mr Bensusan can disassemble your heart and hand it back to you restored and renewed. As he did to mine tonight. A true giant.”
James Volpe Rotondi (editor at Guitar Player Magazine)
"I've seen Alfred Brendel, Itzhak Perlman, Daniel Barenboim, Lynn Harrell, Nureyev, Placido Domingo, etc., etc., perform magnificently. Tonight, in Atlanta, in the last half of the second set, Pierre Bensusan went a quantum beyond the warm, compelling, appealing, extremely accomplished guitarist whose recordings and performances I've eagerly sought for over 30 years. He's achieved the sublime -- decades of technique, creativity, intuition, passion, and intensity crashed together -- a man transformed, singular, stunning. I have so seldom had the privilege and pure animal joy of experiencing this caliber of artistry."
Rain Crow (a fan)

BIOGRAPHIC ELEMENTS
Born in October 1957 in Oran (Algeria)
Moves to France metropole, in the west suburb of Paris, in 1962
Studies piano from the age 6 with Madame Rosso
Taught himself how to play guitar at 11
Quit school at 16
Records his 1st album « Près de Paris » at 17, and wins The Grand Prix/Rose d’Or of the Montreux Festival in Switzerland
Releases 16 albums, the most recent being « Azwan »
Leader of a world approach to the guitar, in open tuning
Has given about 4000 concerts around the globe and sold ½ million albums since 1975
Has lived in Oran, Suresnes, Nice, in the USA every year, Paris, and now in the French countryside, 1 hour from Paris since 1992
COLLABORATIONS
Donny Osmond, Jacques Higelin, Jean-Marie Ecay, Yoko Kano & Cowboy Bebop, Didier Malherbe, Jordan Rudess, Mico Nissim, Bobby Thomas Jr, Emmanuel Binet, Michel Benita, Dennis Benharrosh, Franck Sitbon, André Ceccarelli, Nana Vasconcellos, International Guitar Night (USA), Bill Keith, Roland Dyens, Marcel Dadi, Michel Haumont, Philippe Catherine, Larry Corryell, Doctor Jug & Mister band, Gingua, Andrew York, Cecilia Zabella, Paolo Bellinati, Bluegrass Passengers, Gene Parsons

CURRENT PROJECTS
Concerts in Europe + over 150 concerts in the USA & Canada in 2022
Commission of a music around an international project called « Le Jardin du Climat », (The Garden of the Climate » which illustrates what science can to counter act the effects of climate change with CD, for the Planetarium/Espace Mendès-France of Poitiers (2023 - 2026)
Tours in Europe & in China in 2023
Next North American tour in 2024
Several albums in preparation
AWARDS

Ards Guitar Festival Lifetime Achievment Award (Northern Ireland 2014)
IMA Award for Best Live Album, for "Encore" (USA 2014)
"Album of the Month for "Encore" in Guitarra Totale Magazine (Spain 2013)
"Intuite" named second Best Acoustic Album of all times in Guitarra Totale Magazine (Spain 2013)
Guitar Player Magazine Readers choice award, for 2008 Best World Music Guitar Player (USA)
2002 AFIM (American Association for Independent Music) Award for Best Acoustic Instrumental Album
Album du Mois/Album of the Month (Journal de Montreal/Canada)
Album of the Year (fRoots/UK)
Best Albums (Guitarist Magazine/UK)
Bravo de la Redaction (Trad. Mag./France)
Naird Award for "SolilaÏ" (USA 1983)
Grand Prix du Disque Rose d'Or at the Montreux Festival for "Près de Paris" (Switzerland 1976)