So What présente
Le groupe culte de jazz funk français des 70's : CORTEX

MERCREDI 4 MARS 2009 A 21h00 AU NEW MORNING
7-9 rue des Petites Ecuries 75010 Paris
M° Strasbourg Saint Denis ou M° Château d'Eau
Entrée : 22 EUR / Capacité 450 places, Préventes conseillées

Infos :
Souvent comparé  à Return to Forever, aux Headhunters, ou bien George Duke, Cortex a développé un style unique au cours des  quatre albums qui sortirent entre 1974 et 1979. La renommée de Cortex n'a cessé de grandir depuis les années 70's jusqu'à atteindre le statut de groupe culte  pour tous les jazz funk addicts du monde entier. D' Ed Motta à Madlib ou J-Dilla, nombreux sont les artistes à voir été influencés par Cortex.


Pourquoi : Pressage vinyl et cd limité à 500 ex. bientôt disponible


Troupeau Rleu : Réédition déjà dans les bacs

"les mélodies finement ciselées de Mion nous renvoient aux grandes heures du premier Return To Forever de Chick Corea (avec Flora Purim et Airto Moreira)." - Jazz Magazine
"On se trouve devant une perfection formelle." - Jazz Hot

Après le concert, de 23H00 à 2H00 avec les DJs :
Bobwall (french attack), spécialiste mondiale du groove héxagonale accompagné de Manu Boubli (Comet/Mind) et Doctor Donuts (Jazz Freaks) du collectif Club Jazz nous feront danser sur un mix 100% Jazz funk.

Liens :
myspace.com/CORTEXAlainMion
discogs.com/artist/Cortex+(6)
frenchattack.com
myspace.com/raremoods
myspace.com/clubjazzcollectif

Cortex Interview:
In 1973, pianist and arranger Alain Mion, alongside drummer Alain Gandolfi, gave birth to the French Jazz-Funk band Cortex. Often regarded among pairs with the likes of Chick Corea and his Return to Forever, Placebo (Marc Moulin), George Duke, etc., Cortex went on to develop a unique style and release four LPs between 1975 and 1979.

For the next thirty years, Cortex was to grow slowly into people's musical hearts and minds and achieve cult status within the Groove world. "Pourquoi" is the third and last album of the band, and was never officially released (see interview hereafter). It is now officially re-released by So What! for the first time, in a remastered version done by Alain Gandolfi.

I'm meeting with both members of Cortex at Alain Mion's place after a long rehearsal day. The band is reuniting, and has been rehearsing for several weeks now, getting ready to go back on stage at New Morning and then tour the planet. The set's mood is chilled and relaxed.

What were you listening at the time?
AG: I was first listening to Jazz, then dived into the realm of Jazz-Rock with artists like Chick Corea and Return to Forever.
AM: For some years, I had been deep into Jazz then Jazz-Rock, and was immensely influenced by jazzmen like Ray Charles, Bobby Timmons, Les Mc Cann, Herbie Hancock, Cannonball Adderley etc. I also discovered Sergio Mendes and loved the way he would use voices and play those funky sambas on the piano

Why are you the only two musicians left in the band?
AM: Well at the time the core of Cortex has always been Alain G, Gerard Prevost on bass and I, around which a lot of musicians gravitated. It's amazing how many people have been in and out this band, the reason being the difficult work environnement for jazz musicians at the time: As soon as they could find a gig elsewhere that would pay, they would leave.

How were you perceived by the Jazz scene at the time?
AM: We were seen as people making pop music by some... People just wouldn't get what we were doing. One of our early supporters at the time was Daniel Humair, he had us play twice at the Museum of modern art. Another one was Maurice Cullaz, president of the ''Academie du jazz français'' (ie French Jazz academy).

Why were you misperceived?
AM: We were not trying to fit in a format that already existed.
AG: That's what we're saying now, with a few decades hindsight. We didn't perceive it that way at the time.
AM: I wanted to do something special and that I could call my own I mean, doing another "Autumn leaves" would be pointless: I could never do it as good as Bill Evans did! I've always favoured a strong creative line, although of course we've had artists inspire us - we do not consider ourselves all-knowing creators! We have our own thing though, our touch even within the Disco stuff that we were doing and that people now call Proto-Disco, although I don't know if it was Disco in the first place!
AG: I wanted to play like Corea's drummer but I never managed to, so it became something else! (laughs)

When did the recording take place?
AM: The session happened at Jean Pierre Massièra's studio in Antibes in 1978. We recorded for a week with local musicians and one of my students, Luc Soulay.

Was everything written on the spot or was there some pre-writing?
AM: Everything was ready before entering the studio, we had had rehearsals some weeks before.

This LP is very different from the previous ones
AM: By then we were listening to other stuff, like the Gap Band, George Benson the song "Pauvre Star" is heavily influenced by "Nature Boy". Al Jarreau, Graham Central Station All those bands had a big impact on us, and as we were trying to work on a French angle, we came out with something original.

A major novelty on "Pourquoi" is Alain Mion singing.
AM: Yes, I decided to start singing after being fed up with having to look for girl singers that would leave every two months!
AG: You were already singing before that
AM: Yes, when I was 6, I did perform a lullaby once. (laughs)

How did working with JP Massièra go? His use of reverb brings a Italo-Cosmic Disco touch to the album
AM: We weren't so happy with it He would use tons of effects, especially on the Fender I hated it.
AG: We were never fully satisfied with how the record sounded.

The musical arrangements on "Pourquoi" are a lot more sobre
AG: When we were doing "Troupeau Bleu", we were geared towards sophisticated Jazz-Rock bands, whereas "Pourquoi" glances over a more simplistic, yet refined approach to music.
AM: To me, one of the greatest pianists is Les McCann: he's the king of silence. Someone like Ahmad Jamal also, who will let a rythm going and seldomly play over it I like the strip-to-the-bone, bare essentials approach.
When I find a catchy phrase, I like to loop it ; repetition has always been a part of the Cortex "feel" But we didn't invent it, guys like Pastorius or Les McCann would repeat phrases over and over again until their complete exhaustion.

How was "Pourquoi" welcomed at the time of its issue?
AM: Oddly enough the record never made it to the shelves. Crypto's boss had some financial issues and owed money to everyone. He got entangled with releasing issues – RCA was distributing Crypto and had seized the whole stock, so I believe the LP never actually came out. Eventually RCA sold the stock to brokers, but I've never seen that record in a shop.

You were sampled by The Mighty Bop in "Feeling Good", how did that story unfold?
AM: I hear news through a Cortex musician that a remix of "Pauvre Star" is playing on Radio FG. He asks me: "Have you made a remix?" I tell him: "No, never in a thousand years"!!! I end up finding and listening to the record, and I get that awkward feeling of somebody "playing over" me, it really bothered me. I called La Yellow Prod, who first welcomed me but then left me dangling for weeks. I inquired a bit more and found out the track had been registered at Sacem as Bob Sinclar's own composition, basically stealing my work. They must have thought I was dead (laughs) I called them several times to try to find a way to settle this, but got turned down each time, very rudely sometimes. As they weren't answering my certified letters, we took them to court, and Bob Sinclar got heavily fined for plagiarism. Now that I think about it, no one has ever got in touch with usbefore releasing a track with a sample from Cortex, that's too bad.

What's the future like for Cortex?
AM: We're working our butts off on Cortex' live show, which will be released on DVD this September, we're going on tour and then we'll see who knows, a new Cortex album could be on the way!

Interview: Arthur Borgnis (February 11th, 2009 at "La Maison Bleue")