Pierre Bensusan playing his new Greenfield archtop!

[drumfb88]

damn good sounding guitar, even better guitarist

[misteranonymousguy]

genius!

[TheLittleBaldEagle]

I've had the pleasure of seeing Pierre perform many times and meeting him in person too. Never really understood why he isn't better known, he's an amazing player and anyone I introduce to his music becomes instantly hooked on it.

He sounds chords I can't even finger! He rarely plays anything the same way twice. My only criticism of Pierre is that sometimes it all gets a little too complicated and it can fall apart musically.

Long may he reign supreme playing such beautiful music.

[joelkeaton]

man you could steal from this 4 minutes your entire lifetime

[frmertd]

I am a life long musician. I can play (well) guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, bass. Having scoured the world for music , I can tell you this man is possibly the finest musician alive today. There is just noone even close to him in the field he is in. Noone. We are fortunate to have a guy like him alive in our time.

[joelkeaton]

this most intelligent player alive

[immature4hisage]

I saw Pierre in Buffalo years back. Happy to see he is still kicking so beautifully.

[L1Lb0i]

omgg those beautiful harmonics :F droool

[S0ulm4n92]

awesome voicings in the end O.o

[Qpidon]

watched this video a zillion x already......

[wisesatyr72]

$237.52 for a Alden archtop guitar..

[Qpidon]

only???

[stargate669]

and the price of this guitar?

[356Spunky]

More than you can afford.

[Fsdrak]

@stargate669 about 12000 $, these are crazy expensive guitars, but I think its worth it... Not like i have one...

[GoldCoastPiper]

Sorry, but I sadly have no ability with the French language. Will someone paraphrase the comments being made for me? Thank you!

[kcirtapio]

is this in DADGAD??? if it is, then this is just unbelievable O_o

[joelkeaton]

werd

[DrDread]

it is. and yes it is unbelievable!!!

[WhatDaSausage]

Wow he must be getting into jazz.

[Ahlm4]

definitely the master of dadgad!

[Krompirjevc]

tres jolie...

[gwkesel]

fantastic first time moment with new toy..

[christian11h11]

des accords qui font rêver!!! vraiment bien!!! merci.

[RamonesKaraoke]

Love those 3 guys!!

[viniguitarjazz]

magnifico !!

[ColinPRS]

Fabulous.

[Cminor7sus4]

Hey 121jigawatts, you're a scholar, and I will back you up on almost everything you said. (Hey, oxO, sorry, but I lack patience for people who don't bother to spell the words they're writing--I mean, is nothing sacred? sorry, oxO.) Howvr, im rlly fasc with the Greenfield archtop. Sounds awsm. Can't wait to hear it on his next albm. You guys are great! And viva Pierre!

PS- I notice that people who listen to Bensusan are often quirky, unusual, fascinating folks. Wndr Y...?

[121jigawatts]

This guy is the bet flowing improv player out there on fingerstyle guitar. Among the greats, Bensusan's style transcends to a musicality unmatched by any. His improvs are intelligent and his compositions are so incredibly beautiful. Mckee, Dufour, Ross, Reed, and many other greats lack something Bensusan has. I'm a fan of them all but if I had to pick a teacher out of the line-up, Bensusan would be my choice.

[Qpidon]

well put.

[ox0Jason0xo]

this guys gd but dont compair him to gods he jus dosent match up 2 even any one of dufours, mckees or ross's songs

its like saying yeh jesus is better than god its jus not right

[121jigawatts]

I stand by my statement. And BTW, I think that Jesus IS God. Also, I'm downloading Andy Mckee's Art of Motion tonight as we speak and already own Dufour's "Existence". I have played guitar for over 20 years now and I won't even attempt to touch Bensusans' music because it's so difficult, I can tell by watching it and listening to it. Unlike our guitar hero Qpidon, who has gracefully covered a couple Bensusan tunes :)

[ox0Jason0xo]

20 yrs im proud of you(im not joking!)

i hope im playing for tht long hav u got a tab by him ill learn a song n post it i like a challenge iv learnt all of antoines songs and most of andys

could u please tell me a song by this guy thts well gd so i can hav a liston?

[121jigawatts]

Absolutely. My favorite piece he's written would be "L'Alchemiste" off his Intuite disk and also "So Long Michael" off the same disk. Look up Qpidon on youtube if you want to see a great cover "So Long Michael".

[ox0Jason0xo]

i like it its defo better than i thought jus not my thing i like abit more aggresive fingerstyle but defo i hav more respect for him now theres some vry nice melodys in there XD

[121jigawatts]

Oh I agree, that's one reason that I love Dufour and Mckee. They are more modern in their approaches. Dufour is great with the very aggressive style and his rasgueado technique. I like Mckee mostly for his composition sensability and his amazing tapping and legato techniques. I think Mckee is my favorite to listen to but watching Dufour perform is amazing. I saw him live about 2 years ago. Glad you somewhat liked Bensusan, he definately deserves props in my book.

[ox0Jason0xo]

hes defo up there now for me way up there!!

antoines my fav tho love his style influeces everything i do

XD

[veihuilv]

什么意思？

[Jrg320]

i just saw pierre last night. what a fucking legend.

[TomStHubbins]

shit he can play!

[Xerxes4242]

Definitely sounds brand new! It'll sound even better in a few years I'm sure.

[myklwlym]

AnnihilatingAngel:

How can you judge the sound of the guitar from such a low-fi video clip? You must have great computer speakers! The guitar sounds awesome, I've heard it in person. And if you read Bensusan's website, you'll see he loves it.

[Bosterd]

add "&fmt=18" behind url (without the qoutes) for better sound ;)

[AnnihilatingAngel]

I don't care for the sound of that guitar, but his playing is brilliant.

[dposther]

what amp he is playing through?

[emosucks89]

An Acoustic Image head through a Raezer's Edge cab.

[sedulio]

ok va bene dai, ci sentiamo e ci mettiamo d'accordo bello

[kadjrare]

the harmonics at 1:00 are amazzzing

d(-_-)b

[matthewcross]

this is a really fun video, thanks for this little snippet!

[facch86]

Big big yes to ferretguru's comment about people drumming on their guitars. The instrument has strings for a reason...so people can play for a lifetime and achieve 1/100th of what this man can do.

[procyoncmi]

Does anyone know what model of guitar this wow? Wow... sounds so good. That is an incredible jazz sound.

[emosucks89]

This is Michael Greenfield's Altiplanos model. There is more information about it on his website under the "Archtop" section.

[fireballkiller]

this dudes got SOUL!!!!!!!!

[marxypoo]

Wow! Listen to the part 3:32 till the end and watch his hands. That is some unreal talent.

[underpressure990]

this guy is amazing. I learned something new just from watching him.

[paulrichardschuster]

Is he in DADGAD tunining??

[ihaveaverybadcold]

yeah

[giantrobot9000]

Pierre is just astounding. Listen to what he's playing when he's just noodling around....it's so good an musical it's crazy! I can't wait to see what he comes up with on the archtop. That is a fantastic sounding guitar.

[procyoncmi]

Sounds very nice. Very exciting to take a new guitar home and play her for the first time!

[ourgalval1123]

gorgeous

[trebehluap]

I like what Pierre is doing here - not only will it challenge jazz guitar players to expand their approach it might - hopefully - challenge all those acoustic fingerstyle players who play noodly arpeggio patterns over and over or who stand up there slapping the strings all night with no developed sense of melody or harmony - the Kaki King and Richard Leo Johnson school of players.

[protocosm]

I agree.

[ferretguru]

I couldn't agree more! I really got bored fast with Don Ross and his babies (McKee, Dufour, Mongrain, etc...) They really lack the melodic and harmonic content of guitarists such as Bensusan or Peter Finger. I can't stand seeing people drum on their guitars anymore. They all sound the same...thanks god for geniuses like Bensusan I can't get enough of his work.

[gake]

Don Ross doesn't drum on his guitar with every song. Neither do the rest.  Saying that Don Ross doesn't have the same harmonic knowledge of Bensusan is a pretty bold statement. While Bensusan is melodically unmatched in the guitar world, Don Ross is a compositional monster. It's like comparing 100$ and 98$. Just because I have 100$ doesn't mean 98$ sucks.

[HereICome2SaveTheDay]

I agree with ferretguru. The man has chops, and, more importantly, does his own think. McKee and Ross, while not terrible composers, are largely rips of earlier players who first perfected the style, like Hedges, Juber, Reed, and de Grassi. That's just my opinion, though. I'm a bigger fan of Pierre than Don Ross, though.

[gake]

Juber and De Grassi perfected the style? Sorry, namedropping doesn't strengthen arguments. I think you guys put everyone who taps the fretboard into a category automatically. By your logic, all drummers sound the same because they hit things. The phrase "...I really got bored fast with Don Ross..." makes me wonder what you hear when you listen to his music. And this is coming from a big Bensusan fan.

[facch86]

Sorry if you took my comments to mean that all people who take a percussive approach to the guitar are in the same boat of "bad" playing. I love Don Ross and respect other players who do the same (Preston Reed is one - the song "Pacific" is one of my favorites). However, I really do have a problem with musical pieces that place a large focus on percussive guitar playing. Bensusan's level of improvisation here is astounding. It is much harder and more musical.

[Xerxes4242]

LOL@perfected the style..

No style has ever or will ever be perfected, and thinking so just closes you off to all the new possibilities..

[266lah]

Don't try and use it's greatness to build up intellectual superiority. No amount of your complaining will make people like fingerstyle guitar players any less because they make a living off playing music obviously demonstrating they know something you don't. If you're going to try and enjoy beautiful music, just say nice things about it. Don't undermine pierre's hard work by putting that filth on the comments, the music is just to good for your negativity

[Bartolomeus9]

too bad some people are talking on the background -why when having ears, don't they use them the best way around that time, and listen to this very nice piece of noodling??

[matginmon]

The two guys who are talking on the background have built Pierre's new guitar and it's the first time he was playing with so their talking about the result... They are not here to listen to him even if they seem to apreciate ! Sorry for my poor English I'm French

[Bartolomeus9]

of course, I understand, my comment wasn't meant that seriously. your English is just fine to me, et je vous peux comprendre en francais aussi si ce serais plus facile ;-)

[matginmon]

I didn't understand it was humoristic. English humour seems to be quite diferent but I think your comment was quite good now I've understand it.

To conclude P. Bensusan is one of my favorite guitar player with Andy McKee & Michael Hedges, and I think Pierre's new guitar is really beautiful and surprising.

[s2p3r]

french accent one of my guitar heroes

[Qpidon]

What is sure is that Pierre, with his DADGAD knowledge, certainly will bring some new sounds and harmonies within "jazz"...

[snoochnooch54]

I disagree completely. The Jazz world needs someone like Pierre to give it a kick in the ass. I personally find his current music kind of boring, and beautiful music like this would definitely make him much more appealing.

[RockinGobletVideos]

He could play anything well... too bad he wont just keep playing his Lowden and writing the original sound that people fell in love with... Jazzy Pierre... eh, ill pass.

[streamlinedman]

I understand if he wants a new sound, a new direction, but I can't imagine him playing his existing music with this thing, it's too jazzy. Maybe he'll tour with two guitars now.

[methodinsane]

Well he is selling his old Ryan he's been using for the last 4 years so I wonder..

[Rexicano]

Art is not a wax museum display...things have to change. Be open to it; Pierre may surprise you. You can always go back to the old records (CDs). Obviously he is going to write new music and it probably will exploit this particular instrument...and if not he will change again. Forget the Jazz word; that's a dead term now, and even Miles did not like it—think of music as a road not a house.

[StoryeTime]

Or Jazz sounds like Pierre haha

[pplou22]

As much as I Iove jazz guitar, I hope Pierre keeps exploring his unique and intricate figerstyle stuff. There is plenty of excellent jazz guitar players out there already. We really need the uniqueness and genius of Bensusan. I am talking about something way beyond jazz.

[Qpidon]

I could not agree more.

Pascal

[CribNotes]

Pierre is so incredibly musical it's a joke. Listen to the shit he's playing here just messing around. There are a twenty jazz harmony lessons for guitar players in this four minutes of noodling. Unbelievable. I can't believe I missed the show where he's wearing the bright blue suit in DC. Arrrrgggghhh!!!

[stefchollet]

wow!!

Respect monsieur bensusan, on reste subjugué par tant de talent et de sensibilité...chapeau!

[zacharron]

Wow, never thought I'd see Pierre playing an archtop. He sounds so jazzy!