Rita Moss, whose real name was Loreta L. Waynesboro, was born in Akron, Ohio, on July 4, 1918.
Although she took piano lessons as a child, she was a mostly self-taught multi-instrumentalist
who could play piano, organ and drums. Eventually she became a singer too, with an impressive
4-octave vocal range. She married Herbert Richard Moss on March 15, 1944 in Lawrence, Ohio, and
retained the Moss surname for the duration of her professional career.

Her first real break came in 1949, when she made her debut at New York’s Park Avenue Restaurant,
where public reception led to a stay of over 7 months. Appearances in London, Ontario and Cleveland, Ohio followed, including five repeat performances at Leonard Feather’s concerts. At the end of the year she recorded her first single on Futurama Records, a local label run by Main Stem record store owner Arthur Bangel. Bangel formed Futurama to cut jazz, blues and rhythm, including artists involved in Feathers’ contemporary bop concerts at Carnegie Hall. She recorded two songs, Tradin’ in the Old for a New and I’m in the Middle Again, accompanied by Frank Krysel and the Merrymakers. The record was released January 1950, to luke-warm reception.

In 1951, she recorded again, this time for the Glenn label and accompanied by The Satisfiers and the Sonny Dunham Orchestra. On this record, she already revealed herself as a sensitive interpreter with two excellent original Richard Criger compositions, I Never Was So Surprised, and I’ll Be Waiting for You. In September that same year she went to record for Decca, a 78 rpm this time, with Darlin’ and Love Me or Please Let Me Be. Neal Hefti conducted the band and wrote spot-on arrangements for the group, which in turn resulted in some much deserved recognition for Rita. Neal Hefti’s admiration for Rita is obvious in this quote from 1968: “Rita Moss, the one of a kind, the Girl With the Flaxen Voice, has beguiled me since the first time I heard her. This unique facility of hers is as natural as breathing in and breathing out.”

In an article dated June 1952, Jet magazine wrote that there was finally a rival for Yma Sumac “in cute Rita Moss, who has a sensational fouroctave range voice. She is due for a bigtime treatment.”

End of 1952, Mercury Records inked Rita to a long term contract. She waxed four songs, a novelty called You Never Had It So Good, and three standards, When Day Is Done, Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe, and Memories of You, which appeared on two records with her name spelled Reta Moss. However, and despite her two-year contract, she wouldn’t record for the label again. The four songs would be re-issued two years later on a Clef EP distributed by Mercury.

Her first LP, “Introducing Rita Moss,” was recorded by Epic Records early in 1956. Billboard saluted the album in its March 31st review: “A few singles by the songstress have appeared on another label, but the general public still has to discover this remarkable vocalist. Miss Moss’ first LP is a generous serving of pop and jazz standards that ought to go a long way to establish her name. Her voice is light and covers an extensive range, which she negotiates most skillfully in the upper coloratura reaches. She has a breezy, whimsical style that does not obscure the solidity of her jazz conceptions. An appealing demonstration band would be Jungle Drums or her own composition Bopligatto. She accompanies herself at piano, organ and drums.”

In 1957 she moved to Los Angeles, and focused on touring and night-club appearances. She recorded a single for Debonair—a local small label—including I Should Know and In My Ole Kentucky Home. In 1959, Bob Roszelle who was her manager (and from 1964 also her husband) produced a 4 song EP which appeared on Moss’s private LA based label Rozell, including a beautiful rendition of Billy Strayhorn’s Daydream, with Rita skillfully taking the song at its own superbly melodic face value, in her stylizing scat vocal.

The turn of the 60’s saw her playing LA area venues, including Hollywood’s Exotica Club and the Tahitian Village. In 1966 she began what would turn into a long stay in the popular show room at the Islandia resort hotel on Quivira Road, in San Diego. It was during her stint there that she cut her second LP, “Rita Moss Reigns at Islandia,” featuring a selection of live performances. It was issued on Retep Records, Islandia’s own house label, and generated considerable local acclaim. Airplay and coverage by radio and local TV stations such as KOGO, KFMX and KFMB, attracted the attention of Dot Records, which would eventually go on to issue three of her LP’s.

“Talk to Me Tiger!,” the first of her Dot albums, consisted of several familiar live repertoire numbers from the Islandia LP, plus ballad material. The next, “Superb,” was a beautiful collection of songs, arranged and conducted with the unmistakable skill and style of Marty Paich. In 1968, Dot’s third and final LP, “Just a Dream Ago,” also featured arrangements by Paich and Milt Rogers. It also resulted in a now obscure and eponymous single that would become arguably Moss’s most enduring song: Just a Dream Ago, although the LP also included a worthy cover of Sleep Safe and Warm, the theme from the film “Rosemary’s Baby.”

In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Rita was still a regular at the Islandia, and did stints in Reno and Las Vegas with her own group. She was a captivating night-club performer rather than a recording artist —she became known as “Queen Moss” for the loyalty of her fans and cult-like following— but her impressive vocal talents and musical ambidexterity in a live setting failed to translate into record sales and broad appeal.

In 1977 Moss recorded an LP of spiritual jazz “Inner Experience” issued also under the Retep label. The compositions were mostly self-penned, with lyrics co-credited to Dr. Russell Paul Schofield, founder-director of “Actualism for Lightworkers,” a spiritual training regime. Moss continued to perform live in San Diego and Los Angeles into the 2000’s.

She died on July 16, 2015 at her residence in San Diego, California.

Jordi Pujol —From the inside liner notes of "Queen Moss 1951-1959" (FSRCD 983)