Gloria Smyth ( 8 March 1934 – April 2015) was an American jazz and soul singer of boundless energy, billed as “ The Princess Of Pop” with a warm and appealing feel for lyrics. She showed influences of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday, but was also sufficiently individual to escape most comparisons.
Gloria Smyth was born in Hackensack, New Jersey..Her first public appearance was in January 1951, when she appeared at the Apollo Theater with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. From there Gloria went to deejay Bill Cook’s Club Caravan in Newark, New Jersey where she sang for over a year backed by such greats as Max Roach and Calvin Jackson. The year 1956 found Gloria working in Miami at The Beachcomber along with Billy Eckstine and Sophie Tucker. While in Miami she also worked the Singapore Lounge. In 1958 Gloria joined Steve Gibson and The Red Caps in Wildwood, New Jersey. She replaced Damita Jo who left to go out on her own. Gloria toured with Gibson most of ‘58, wound up in Las Vegas at The Sands Hotel. Frank Sennes, the owner of the Moulin Rouge and Ciro’s in Hollywood, discovered Gloria while she was appearing with Steve Gibson at The Sands.
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In 1959 as Miss Gloria Smyth she recorded "Playmates" on the Siera label. This popular song was ostensibly written by Saxie Dowell. The main theme was note-for-note plagiarized from the 1904 intermezzo "Iola" by Charles L. Johnson, for which Johnson sued, settling out of court for an undisclosed sum. The tiny Sierra Records was located at the same address in Hollywood on Sierra Bonita as the address of her manager, Robert Leonard, who may have owned the label.
In 1960, World Pacific Records released "Like Soul!" It was the first and only solo LP for Gloria, and once you hear it you'll wonder why she didn't cut more. Meanwhile Lenny McBrowne and the 4 Souls, hailed as "the future of West Coast jazz," released two LPs in the 1960s, with Gloria as the vocalist on several prime tracks, like her moody take on "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child," which is a heart-wrenching masterpiece.After the Jazz Seville engagement, Gloria went back to Las Vegas; this time with Lionel Hampton to play the Riviera; then to Mr. Kelly’s in Chicago with Lenny Bruce; on to The Village Vanguard in New York City opposite Teddy Wilson; then out west again for an engagement at Fack’s No. 2 in San Francisco. After Gloria completed the recording of this album, she flew to Chicago in May 1960 to play the Music Operators Convention where she was the hit of the show, followed by two months at The Embers Club in Melbourne, Australia
Under her birth name Gloria Smyth ("Little Miss Muffet"), she recorded with Count Basie, Chico Mendoza, Les McCann and Dizzy Gillespie. After a long break from music, she returned to jazz in 1988 as Rasheema Percira (Rasheema was given to her by Muhammad Ali). Sammy Davis Jr said of Rasheema "She's the total end!”
For many years, Rasheema was a frequent visitor throughout Denmark, among others. at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. Rasheema was simply "the real thing". (quote: Hugo Rasmussen). Together with his regular partner Torben Kjær, Rasheema recorded material for 2 CDs, of which Stolen Moments was released on MusicMecca (1992). The CD For All We Know with Torben Kjær, Jesper Lundgaard, Ole Streenberg, Jens Skou Olsen and Christina von Bülow was recorded in 1998 but released posthumously in 2016.
She died in April 2015 in New Jersey.
(Information edited from Freshsound records, the Cheerful Earful & Dead Wax blogs and Torben Kjær)