Q&AQ&A with French guitar guru Pierre Bensusan
IF YOU GOWhat: Guitarist Pierre Bensusan.When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday.Where: Barking Legs Theater, 1307 Dodds Ave.Admission: $15 in advance, $18 at the door.Phone: 624-5347.Venue website: www.barkinglegs.org.
Some people like to treat music like a tacklebox, putting various artists in their designated trays for simplicity’s sake. To Pierre Bensusan’s eye, the art form is infinitely more nuanced than can be conveyed by a few genres, so he ignores them entirely.
The French-Algerian born guitarist’s free-form approach draws on everything from Celtic music and jazz to New Age and classical. That alchemical blending has made him a frustrating target for those who take comfort in rigidly defined styles, but it’s also a far more rewarding way to compose, he said.
“To me, there are no styles but just different angles, lightings and approaches to the language of music,” Bensusan wrote in an emailed response while he toured overseas. “That has always been driving me as long as I can remember, and the more I go, the more this sentiment is reinforced.”