Okay so let me just tell you that I wasn’t expecting this record to be so good. After that first listen, I felt as if my face was slapped so hard with jazz, funk, and fusion elements. I’m talking about Cortex’s 1975 release titled, “Troupeau Bleu.” I’ve already come across this record in my instagram feed, but overtime you tend to find other interesting music, and sort of get lost into the renown world of intergalactic musical space. And let me point out once again that my friend Luke, tells me about this record, and It took me a split second to realize that I haven’t dug into it yet. It was time, and believe it or not, it BLEW MY MIND! I don’t remember the last time that I came across a jazz, fusion, and funk record so good, that it took me all the way back to the late highschool, beginning of college years. Those were the years when I started digging into the jazz world, remembering how amazed I was by John Coltrane’s “My Favourite Things,” or even bassist Jaco Pastorious. It was almost as if I was in search of something that was going to take me onto another mythical musical voyage. And years later, that’s exactly how I felt, just amazed by how great this record was.

And yet, it’s delivering this sort of need for your musical soul to the point where it’s reaching down, and feeding it with nothing but great melodies. You’ve also got some unexpected, and great bossa nova, and latin jazz influence as well. And let me make this as clear as possible, this record is underrated, and needs to be put out into the public as much as possible. The record starts off with, “La Rue,” a beautiful funk jazz melody, where the vocal harmonies gave me this 1970’s Serge Gainsbourg vibe. It’s a song that describes what we tend to experience on the street day by day. But then we make our way to the title song of the record “Troupeau Bleu.” I adore the wonderful bossa nova/ latin jazz influence. Because of them, I’ve now started slowly listening to more bossa nova/ latin jazz musicians such as Astrud Gilberto, and a little bit of Nara Leão. But not to worry, more to come, guaranteed! And let me remind you of this killer bass line, kinda reminds me of the sound coming out of a Fender fretless jazz bass. “Huit Octobre 1971,” and “Madbass,” share that same, yet amazing musical vibe. I mean, both songs gave me that 1970’s Herbie Hancock vibe, where you’ve got your vocal harmonies. Cool. But then, here comes this great funky ass beat, along with that magical improvisational sound coming out of the Fender Rhoades electric keyboard. Just the way it’s being played fits right into the groove, without losing any of that lustrous musical beat. HANDS DOWN!