JAZZ REVIEWS : GUITARIST BENSUSAN WORTH THE WAIT

Add Pierre Bensusan to the growing list of players whose music virtually defies category. The French-Algerian guitarist’s program at At My Place on Sunday night touched everything from European folk song and North African rhythms to jazz scat singing and funk.

Bensusan’s relative anonymity--remarkable for a performer who is so gifted--undoubtedly traces to the scarcity of his recordings. A few older reissues (mostly from the ‘70s) are available on the Windham Hill-distributed Lost Lakes Arts label, but access to his far more provocative current work will have to await the release of a new album on CBS in January.

If Bensusan’s Sunday night program was any indication, the wait will be worthwhile. Despite various tuning problems and a recalcitrant monitor speaker, he quickly affirmed that he is one of the most unique acoustic guitarists in what might most accurately be described as the world music scene.

Clearly influenced by Django Rheinhardt, Bensusan plucked his open-tuned instrument with an intensity that literally snapped with energy. On samba-based lines like “Santa Monica” and “The Imaginary Boat” he managed to play a singing melody line (occasionally accompanied by wordless scatting) while simultaneously strumming rhythmic accents for punctuation.

A North African-styled piece--”Agadiramadan”--swung with an almost erotic 7/4 rhythm, while “Les Voiles Catalanes” (both from his new album) juxtaposed Medieval-sounding dissonances against a driving accompaniment by drummer Denis Benharrosh and bassist Emmanuel Binet.

Bensusan closed his fascinating program with a briskly energetic “Mot Segur,” and the clear look and sound of a performer whose star is rising.