OPEN POST: Manor Music Monday With The Remarkable Rita Moss!

Greetings, fellow tramps, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday - this week with an extra-long holiday hangover. But you know the solution to that, don't you? More cocktails! Obvi. And tonight at the Manor's swingin' club, "Pocket Rocket," bartenders will be serving Hank Panky cocktails, while DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing outta-sight tunes performed by a somewhat forgotten chanteuse who richly deserves rediscovery.

I speak of Rita Moss, a dazzling jazz-pop vocalist whose "Talk To Me Tiger" from 1966 is a thrilling, one-of-a-kind LP. Known for her stunning four-octave range, Rita only recorded five full-length LPs (that I can find), and trust me, you'll never forget her once you've heard her. She's often compared to Yma Sumac, but I think of her more as a precursor to Minnie Riperton, what with her eerily floating, way-up-high soprano, ersatz instrumentations and jazz-pop stylings. The title track is actually the LP's most ordinary, likely shoe-horned in by a record exec hoping for a radio hit, but otherwise, Rita's anything but ordinary.

If you were a nightclub goer from the late 1950s onward, you were in luck, because while Rita's LP output was sparse, she continued to perform and tour for decades. She was a captivating entertainer, earning the nickname "Queen Moss" from her devoted fanbase, and being a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, she often performed while playing both organ and piano, or even drums, as she sang, notably during extended stints at venues like the Tahitian Village. In fact, she continued performing live into the early 2000s. 

Born in West Virginia, Rita's talents were revealed early in life. As a child, she was already playing classical music, and as teenager, she was writing and copyrighting her own songs. Her first LP in 1956, "Introducing Rita Moss," was critically lauded, with Billboard Magazine noting, "Her voice is light and covers an extensive range, which she negotiates most skillfully in the upper coloratura reaches. She has a whimsical style which does not obscure the solidity of her jazz conceptions. An appealing demonstration would be 'Jungle Drums' or her own composition, 'Bop-liggato.'"

Rita left us in 2015 at age 97, but her incredible talent is here forever. The trippy jazz tune, "Somethin' Else Blues," and the dreamy "Red Balloon," both from "Talk To Me Tiger," are amongst her best. 

If you want to hear the rest of "Talk To Me, Tiger," it's not available to stream commercially - which is a travesty - but its copyright is expired, so you can stream or download it for free RIGHT HERE! You know you want to. 

What are you listening to this week? DJ Li'l Scratch wants to know.
Till next time...purr, bitches, purr! 🐾

Photo Credits: Dot Records; Getty Images