New 12″ single featuring two rare tracks from French jazz-funk group Cortex
The Paris-based Trad Vibe Records, who reissued Cortex’s 1975 rare masterpiece Troupeau Bleu back in 2010, has released a brand new single featuring the group’s 1979 jazz-funk medley “Mary & Jeff + Devils Dance,” along with the brilliant Fender Rhodes led version of the track.
Cortex was a “mythical” French band started by Alain Mion, Alain Gandolfi, and Jeff Huttner in 1974. The group released three albums, beginning in the mid-seventies, including their widely-diverse 1975 debut Troupeau Bleu, which has become one of the most sought-after albums globally by record collectors. One of the record’s many great tracks was “Mary Et Jeff” (aka “Mary & Jeff”).
A few year’s later in 1979, the band released a new medley twelve-inch single featuring “Mary Et Jeff” with “Devil’s Dance” from their sophomore full-length Vol 2. Fast forward to 2010, following the official reissue of Troupeau Bleu, the Trad Vibe label put out a seven-inch single featuring two previously unreleased tracks from the group, including the 1977 Fender Rhodes version of “Mary Et Jeff”. This new twelve-inch single brings together both the hard-to-find medley, and the psyched-out funk heavy groover on the same release for the first time.
Even though each tracks have a very much different sound based on the original foundation and structure of “Mary Et Jeff,” both are primed nicely for the dancefloor.
Trad Vibe has once again put together a must-own release, that continues to celebrate the brilliance and shed well-deserved light on the French jazz-funk group Cortex.
Cortex — ‘Medley’ 12″
(Trad Vibe Records)
A SIDE: Medley : Mary & Jeff + Devils Dance
B SIDE: Mary & Jeff (Fender Rhodes Version ’77)
