Cortex at Thalia Hall

He was born in Casablanca in 1947 (76 years old) - father a soldier in the French army - and raised in Paris. The family was very musician and in Morocco, his grandmother, a pianist, accompanied silent films in cinemas and certain French artists on tour in North Africa (V. Sardou). Very young, he discovers the jazz music with albums by Art Blakeys Jazz Messengers, Bobby Timmons, Oscar Peterson, Miles Davis then the greatest Ray Charles ! At the age of 14, his grandmother offers him his first piano, a Klein brand, and at 16 Alain discovered John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner and also Les Mc Cann and Wynton Kelly.At 19 he performed with his own trio at famous Paris Blue Note and then at various festivals gigging with Hank Mobley, Philly Joe Jones or Hal Singer...

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He was born in Casablanca in 1947 (76 years old) - father a soldier in the French army - and raised in Paris. The family was very musician and in Morocco, his grandmother, a pianist, accompanied silent films in cinemas and certain French artists on tour in North Africa (V. Sardou). Very young, he discovers the jazz music with albums by Art Blakeys Jazz Messengers, Bobby Timmons, Oscar Peterson, Miles Davis then the greatest Ray Charles ! At the age of 14, his grandmother offers him his first piano, a Klein brand, and at 16 Alain discovered John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner and also Les Mc Cann and Wynton Kelly.At 19 he performed with his own trio at famous Paris Blue Note and then at various festivals gigging with Hank Mobley, Philly Joe Jones or Hal Singer. He admits to having taken only one single lesson with the great French pianist Georges Arvanitas, which opened up new harmonic perspectives for him.Passionate about composition, returning from military service - during which he discovered Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66 - he composed tracks that would become a few years later the repertoire of Troupeau Bleu de Cortex.Alains discography with Cortex or under his name, includes more than 60 records, re-issues and compilations internationally distributed on French, European, Japanese, English and US labels.(His most notable albums under his name: Pheno Men - Alain Mion in New York with bassist Marc Johnson, David Binney and Tom Rainey - Some Soul Food recorded in Sweden with Patrik Boman and Ronnie Gardiner)

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