My son, now a freshman at college, asked me if I’d heard about a French jazz band called Cortex. I said I had not and he shared a link with me. I laughed and said “this sounds like 1975!” He was like “yeah! I heard it in a record store today!” I’d never heard of them before.

I just marvel at how he hears and shares the most random things as he makes his way in the world.

If you love the live, plugged-in jazz fusion sound from that era, you may want to check out this group. It once again goes to show that music, like love, is universal.

Cortex has found a new audience as their 1975 recording Troupeau Bleu has been sampled almost 150 times by hip-hop names like MF DOOM, Madlib, Tyler the Creator, and Rick Ross. Co-founder and keyboardist, Alain Mion, toured with Cortex for the first time in the United States in 2022.

Andre Gee, writer and beat maker, wrote about Cortex on Micro-Chop and the sample MF DOOM and Madlib used.

Rolling Stone published an interview with Mion and about the jazz and hip-hop connection.

Listen to the music my son heard – from the 1975 original recording Troupeau Bleu by Cortex: