Born in Casablanca in 1947, that’s in Paris suburbs that Alain Mion grew up and where his passion for jazz and soul was born.

His debuts as a professional musician started in the 60’s performing then with his own trio at the Blue Note and at various festivals, gigging with Hank Mobley or Philly Joe Jones.

Inspired by the sound of Hancock, Chick Corea or Zoe Zawinul it is in 1974 that he became partners with Alain Gandolfi and created cortex (outer portion of the brain receiving sensory perception).

A year later they co-signed "troupeau bleu", first opus particularly original for that time with a jazzy funky and exotic sound at the same time but also tainted with esoterism and melancholy. At the centre of the band and giving its strength are bass player Jean Grevet and singer Mireille Dalbray whose colour of voice gives all its singularity to the album.

Showing its musical richness the album will be sampled many times, in particular "La Rue" and "8 octobre" ... At that time over 7 000 copies of the album were sold and important fact: 10 000 copies of the reissue. Impressive!

Following was a soundtrack for a movie, an instrumental track in the “Temptations” style. But strips and rushes of the film burnt down in a fire! There may be some rare test pressing somewhere... Look out crate diggers!

In 1977, they recorded their second album of a lot lesser quality than "troupeau bleu". The artistic choice for the cover and the title was left to esperance who curiously named it vol 2 and used an illustration of "Ben Hur" related style . In 1978 it was over with esperance

A new start under the label "Crypto", with the album "pourquoi", recorded in a studio in Antibes (South of France). The alchemy from "troupeau bleu" was not there anymore and there were only the 2 co-founders left with some studio musicians. Mion and Gandolfi then worked for advertising and radio for which they realized jingles before they separated in early 80’s. Gandolfi turned to sound engineering, and Alain Mion abandoned electric music to come back to his more acoustic and original love, the piano .

During the 90’s Alain Mion went solo with its own compositions and after playing again some jazz standards with « Alain Mion in New York ».

That decade witnessed a growing wave of groove and 70’s revival which gave people a chance to rediscover the band through numerous compilations. It was also the era of sampling, not always done within rules (see the lawsuit against Bob Sinclar for a not so delicate sample)...

But we would have to wait until 2006 and the record "inedit '79" under label underdog, to hear again about that mythical band with recordings dating from 27 years ago now out!

Still to know, the publishing of "Jazz Magazine" 578, where cortex was selected as one of the "70 Groove jewels" and the only French artist to be nominated! Funky Jazz of anthology to make Headhunters green of envy !

For more infos about co-leaders Alain Mion and Alain Gandolfi you can visit their respective websites:

http://www.alainmion.com (Alain Mion, co-leader of Cortex) http://apem.aucase.com/cortex.php/ (Alain Gandolfi, co-leader of Cortex)

- cortex musicians for the decade :

Alain Mion : piano Fender-Rhodes, vocals, leader
Alain Gandolfi : drums, leader
Jeff Hutner : bass, later remplaced by Jean Grevet
Paul-Louis Duhamel : tenor saxo, later remplaced by Alain Labib at alto saxo
Mireille Dalbray : vocals, back-singer

- Discography for Alain Mion :

Phéno-Men,T.Bones Square (Caravage/Carrere) Single
Phéno-Men,All Along (Caravage/Carrere) Maxi
Phéno-Men (Caravage/Carrere) LP + Tape
No'Mad, Un autre Be Bop (Olivi/Media7) Single
No'Mad (Olivi/Media7) LP and CD
Alain Mion in New York (Elabeth/DAM)CD / Reissue (Jazz'in) CD
Some Soul Food (Caravage/Jazz'in/Next Music) CD
Alain Mion Solo CD (to come)
Alain Mion Trio live on tour in Europe CD (to come)