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Pierre Bensusan is a French guitarist born on October 30, 1957, in Oran, Algeria. Coming from a Sephardic Jewish background with roots in Spain, Spanish Morocco, and French Algeria, he moved to Paris with his family at the age of four. Bensusan began studying piano and classical music at seven, and at eleven, he started to teach himself guitar after receiving a steel-string acoustic guitar from his father and learning a few chords from a classmate. By seventeen, he had signed a contract for his debut album, "Près de Paris," which won the Grand Prix du Disque at the Montreux Festival. His musical influences include notable artists such as Big Bill Broonzy, Larry Carlton, Martin Carthy, Ry Cooder, Joan Baez, Reverend Gary Davis, Davey Graham, Jimi Hendrix, Mississippi John Hurt, Bert Jansch, Nic Jones, Paco de Lucía, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, Wes Montgomery, John Renbourn, Django Reinhardt, Ralph Towner, and Doc Watson. Bensusan is known for using the DADGAD tuning system and various electronic effects like delays, distortion, and volume pedals, drawn to the "mystical" and "romantic" qualities of this tuning that evoke a sense of the 16th or 17th century. He incorporates scat-singing into both composed and improvised pieces and has collaborated extensively with saxophonist Didier

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