Bensusan was a kind of child prodigy, already studying classical music at the age of seven. His debut album was recorded for the French Cezame label when he was only 17. "Solilai", his fourth album, was the first to receive wider distribution with issues on Rounder Records and the German Stockfisch label.
Though Bensusan cites players like Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy etc. as important influences, he was rarely content with recording solo guitar stuff. Most of his albums feature larger ensembles, making this album special insofar as it only features occasional flute and sax along Bensusan's guitar and vocals.
I bet that everyone who enjoys fine guitar picking will enjoy Bensusan's playing immensely, just listen to the aptly titled instrumental "Nice Feeling" with it's fluid, complex and deeply lyrical guitar.
How much you'll like the whole album will depend on your feelings about Bensusan's singing though. He adds scat singing to three pieces while singing words on two tracks. As far as I'm concerned the scat singing works great on the epic "Bamboulé" but is at times annoying on "Doatéa". His abbility to scat along his guitar soli is without a doubt impressive, though.
"Au Jardin D'Amour" has a very beautiful melody, but the singing's a bit too schmaltzy for my taste. "Milton" the other track with lyrics is quite nice, though. Bensusan has indeed a hand for writing melodies that stick in your mind, "Suite Flamende Aux Pommes" is another great example.
"Solilai" is one of the album's highlights, a tour-de-force with some fiery guitar, nice flute and overdubbed percussion and saxes.
Although it has it's akwards moments, i really love most of this album for Bensusan's beautiful melodies and gorgeous picking.
Pierre Bensusan: Solilai
Stockfisch Records SF 8009
Germany, 1981
A1 Nice Feeling 4:16
A2 Bamboulé 6:58
A3 Au Jardin D'Amour 4:41
A4 Santa Monica 3:43
B1 Suite Flamende Aux Pommes 5:14
B2 Milton 2:30
B3 Solilai 6:26
B4 Doatéa 3:37
All tunes written by Pierre Bensusan
Pierre Bensusan: Guitar, Vocals, Bass, Percussion
Didier Malherbe: Flute, Saxophone
11 comments:
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I'm a longtime fan of this wildly talented guitarist. It just so happens that this is the album I've wanted to check out for quite a while but couldn't find so I'm very happy to get it. I'll let you know what I think after I get a chance to listen to it. Thank you LPR!
As always, curious what you think, Kris.
Love his 2000 album, Intuite. Would welcome recommendations for other Bensusan albums.
Well I liked Solilai very much. I like him best when he just plays. I like him 2nd best when he scats. I like him not as much when he sings. I like his playing most because it is just so beautiful, elegant, intricate, and clean. There is a really nice playful momentum to his playing that often leads to some rather astonishing passages.
Although, I've been a fan for sometime I only have 3 of his albums and after looking them up I see that 2 of them are compilations which are "Nice Feelings" and "Musiques". Both are excellent however and perhaps Bensusan is the kind of artist who's output shines under the compilation format. The other album I have is the one you mentioned, "Intuite" which is probably the best album of the 3. He does seem to be an artist who is happy to stay in his comfort zone but what an impressively beautiful zone it is!
I have "Nice Feelings" in a low bitrate but I do have "Musiques" in FLAC. If you'd like to check it out, here is a fresh link:
http://www45.zippyshare.com/v/96261324/file.html
Many thanks for the upload, Kris.
Some very beautiful tunes on that album!
Why do you thing that this is a compilation? According to discogs.com Musiques is a regular album, first issued in 1979.
On the Allmusic site it says:
"...he demonstrates tremendous skills throughout the 13 pieces on this anthology of late-'70s singles issued by Dadgad (distributed domestically by Rounder)."
So it IS an anthology but since it's singles you'd probably have to be French to have heard any of them. So I guess technically it's a compilation but not functionally for us non-French folks?
I discovered this guitarist thanks to Michael Hedges many years ago, i was lucky to find all his records except "Wu Wei"...the quality of his recordings is always high...Intuite is maybe my favorite but i also recommend his first album..."Pres dè Paris" (1975).....unfortunately Bensusan is very thrifty to publish discs....
Thank you!
Here's a cd rip of Spices (1987) in flac.
owlface,
thanks for the offer, but no link in your comment...
Sorry...
here you go:
http://www51.zippyshare.com/v/15364375/file.html
http://www22.zippyshare.com/v/58704165/file.html
Many thanks, owlface! Much appreciated.
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