Talk about one-hit wonders: the above tune, famously sampled in a couple of hip-hop gems, appears to be the only single ever churned out by Lee Mason & His Orchestra. The group is so obscure, in fact, that it’s often not even credited with “Shady Blues”; the song was apparently re-released in the U.K. under the name Pete Moore, and it’s Moore who usually receives the credit on soul compilations. But the genius here is actually all Mason’s, right down to the flute solo.
We’ll follow up soon with a couple of posts on contemporary cuts that rely on Mason’s lazy groove. The man deserves far more recognition than he’s received, if only for this one classic.
The Mysterious Mr. Mason, Cont’d // Sep 3, 2009 at 12:32 pm
[…] to remember this, but we left you hanging a couple of months back. See, we dug up a copy of Lee Mason’s “Shady Blues”, which we first fell in love with as a much-used hip-hop sample. And at the conclusion of that […]
Back to the Land of the Golden Arcs | Microkhan by Brendan I. Koerner // Aug 25, 2011 at 9:41 am
[…] Winging my way back to Queens today, after a truly epic reporting trip in Southern California. Can’t wait to clue y’all in to the narrative I’ve been piecing together—it’s a doozy, to say the least. As I hurtle eastward through the air at slightly subsonic speed, enjoy a classic Sean Price track—yet another example of hip-hop’s excellent use of Lee Mason’s “Shady Blues,” a tune previously given supreme Microkhan love here. […]