Yma Sumac - The Exotic Lure Of Yma Sumac [2008] (3 x CD's)

EXOTICA

Yma Sumac - The Exotic Lure Of Yma Sumac [2008] (3 x CD's)

Sumac was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo on September 10, 1922, in Ichocán, a historically indigenous village in Cajamarca, Peru. Her parents were Sixto Chávarri and Emilia del Castillo. Her father was born in Cajamarca and her mother was born in Pallasca. Stories published in the 1950's claimed that she was an Incan princess, directly descended from Atahualpa. The government of Peru in 1946 formally supported her claim to be descended from Atahualpa, the last Incan emperor. However, her biographer, Nicholas E. Limansky, claims that her Incan royal origin was not true. "Hollywood took this nice girl who wanted to be a folk singer, dressed her up and said she was a princess. And she acted like it," according to Limansky. She was the youngest of six children. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father a civic leader.  She adopted the stage name of Imma Sumack (also spelled Yma Sumack and Ima Sumack) before leaving South America for the United States. Her stage name was based on her mother's name, which was derived from "ima shumaq", Quechua for "how beautiful!", although in interviews at the beginning of her career she claimed it meant "beautiful flower" or "beautiful girl".

Yma Sumac was a Peruvian coloratura soprano. She was one of the most famous exponents of exotica music during the 1950's. Sumac became an international success based on her extreme vocal range. She had five octaves according to some reports, but other reports (and recordings) document four-and-a-half at the peak of her singing career. (A typical trained singer has a range of about three octaves.) In one live recording of "Chuncho", she sings a range of over four and a half octaves, from B2 to G♯7. She was able to sing notes in the low baritone register as well as notes above the range of an ordinary soprano. Both low and high extremes can be heard in the song "Chuncho (The Forest Creatures)" (1953). She was also apparently able to sing in a remarkable "double voice".  In 1954, composer and music critic Virgil Thomson described Sumac's voice as "very low and warm, very high and birdlike", noting that her range "is very close to five octaves, but is in no way inhuman or outlandish in sound." In 2012, audio recording restoration expert John H. Haley favorably compared Sumac's tone to opera singers Isabella Colbran, Maria Malibran, and Pauline Viardot. He described Sumac's voice as not having the "bright penetrating peal of a true coloratura soprano" but having in its place "an alluring sweet darkness ... virtually unique in our time. However, one source claims that in the song "K'arawi", she reached D8 (at 00:26). If true this would extend her vocal range to over five octaves, perhaps even six.

The 1950's were the years of Sumac's greatest popularity; She played Carnegie Hall, the Roxy Theatre with Danny Kaye, Las Vegas nightclubs and concert tours of South America and Europe. She put out a number of hit albums for Capitol Records, such as Mambo! (1954) and Fuego del Ande (1959).[19] During the height of Sumac's popularity, she appeared in the films Secret of the Incas (1954) with Charlton Heston and Robert Young and Omar Khayyam (1957). In 1950, she made her first tour to Europe and Africa and debuted at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Royal Festival Hall before the future Queen of England. She presented more than 80 concerts in London and 16 concerts in Paris. A second tour took her to the Far East: Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Sumatra, the Philippines, and Australia. Her fame in countries like Greece, Israel and Russia made her change her two-week stay to six months. During the 1950s, she produced a series of best-selling recordings of lounge music featuring Hollywood-style arrangements of Incan and South American folk songs, working with Les Baxter and Billy May. The combination of her extraordinary voice, exotic looks, and stage personality made her a hit with American audiences. Sumac appeared in a Broadway musical, Flahooley, in 1951, as a foreign princess who brings Aladdin's lamp to an American toy factory to have it repaired. The show's score was by Sammy Fain and Yip Harburg, but her three numbers were the work of Vivanco, with one co-written by Vivanco and Fain. Flahooley closed quickly, but the Capitol recording of the show continues to sell well as a cult classic, in part because it also marked the Broadway debut of Barbara Cook. (Wikipedia)

Yma Sumac - The Exotic Lure Of Yma Sumac [2008] is an interesting set because it includes some of the early recordings of Yva Sumac that were made for the label Odeon before she moved to the US and started recording with Capitol Records.The Odeon recordings and the Capitol tracks are what makes this set interesting if you don't already have this content. The sound is very good considering the age - the 1943 recordings sound a bit flat but the 1950+ ones are very good. They don't seem to have been remastered much, except perhaps to reduce noise. Overall, a nice release that deserves special attention for the 1943 recordings and the two Capitol tracks. (Amazon)

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Track lists

CD1  

01 Virgenes del Sol (The Sun Maidens) 3:22

02 Waraka Tusuy 3:19

03 Amor Indio (Indian Love) 2:15

04 Que Lindos Ojos (Beautiful Eyes) 2:18

05 Un Amor (One Love) 1:41

06 Cholo Traicionero 2:52

07 Cholitas Punenas 2:18

08 A Ti Solita Te Quiero (I Love Only You) 2:19

09 Taita Inty (Virgin of the Sun God) 3:04

10 Ataypura (High Andes) 3:02

11 Accla Taqui (Chant of the Chosen Maidens) 2:43

12 Tumpa (Earthquake) 3:18

13 Choladas (Dance of the Moon Festival) 2:33

14 Wayra (Dance of the Winds) 3:01

15 Monos (Monkeys) 2:39

16 Xtabay (Lure of the Unknown Love) 3:16

CD2

01 Babalu 2:48

02 Wimoweh 2:39

03 Karibe Taki 3:02

04 Witallia (Fire in the Andes) 2:20

05 Lament 3:16

06 Zana 2:01

07 Kuyaway (Inca Love Song) 2:44

08 Suray Surita 3:17

09 No Es Vida 2:20

10 Mamallay 2:58

11 Kon Tiki 3:08

12 Montana 3:40

13 K'arawi (Planting Song) 3:19

14 Cumbe-Maita (Call of the Andes) 3:06

15 Wak'ai (Cry) 2:29

16 Incacho (Royal Anthem) 3:06

CD3

01 Chuncho (The Forest Creatures) 3:40

02 Llulla Mak'ta (Andean Don Juan) 2:27

03 Malaya (My Destiny) 3:27

04 Ripui 3:00

05 Bo Mambo 3:20

06 Taki Rari 1:50

07 Gopher 2:16

08 Chicken Talk 3:03

09 Malambo No. 1 2:55

10 Five Bottles Mambo 2:47

11 Indian Carnival 2:05

12 Jungla 2:22

13 Goomba Boomba 4:12

14 Cha Cha Gitano 3:51

15 Carnavalito Boliviano 2:05

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