A new exclusive release from www.yma-sumac.com “Yma Sumac: The Voice!”, twelve unheard tracks from the most exciting voice in the world. From 1950 to 1961, Sumac sings live, all over the world, in several languages.
We have no further details about the availability of this album at this time.
This has been out for a little while, but we wanted to remind you there’s a great biography of Yma Sumac, written by Nick Limansky: Yma Sumac: The Art Behind the Legend
“At last a serious critical examination of the utterly unique vocalist celebrated for her “four-octave voice,” Yma Sumac! A confounding, sometimes heartbreaking, mixture of absurd show-biz hype, stunning virtuosity, and sometimes ravishing artistry, Yma Sumac was a firmly established recording artist of the folk music of her native Peru when she came to America to be “discovered.” And discovered she was-by the publicity department of Capitol Records and the “Exotica” pop music maestro Les Baxter.”
Yma Sumac, the Peruvian-born singer whose spectacular multi-octave vocal range and exotic persona made her an international sensation in the 1950s, has died. She was 86.
Sumac, who was diagnosed with colon cancer in February, died Saturday in an assisted living facility in Silver Lake, said Damon Devine, her personal assistant and close friend.
Bursting onto the American music scene after signing with Capitol Records in 1950, the raven-haired Sumac was known as the “Nightingale of the Andes,” the “Peruvian Songbird” and a “singing marvel” with a 4 1/2 -octave (she said five-octave) voice.
After Sumac performed at the Shrine Auditorium with a company of dancers, drummers and musicians in 1955, a Los Angeles Times writer observed: “She warbles like a bird in the uppermost regions, hoots like an owl in the lowest registers, produces bell-like coloratura passages one minute, and exotic, dusky contralto tones the next.”
Sumac’s first album for Capitol, “Voice of the Xtabay,” soared to the top of the LP charts. A handful of other albums followed during the `50s.
With her exotic beauty, elaborate costumes and singing voice that could imitate the cries of birds and wild animals, the woman who claimed to be a descendant of an ancient Incan emperor offered Eisenhower-era audiences something unique.
During her 1950s heyday, Sumac sang at the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall and Royal Albert Hall. She reportedly made $25,000 a week in Las Vegas and turned down offers to sing with New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
She was featured in the 1951 Broadway musical “Flahooley” and appeared in the films “Secret of the Incas” in 1954 and “Omar Khayyam” in 1957.
Although details of her birth date and early life vary widely, Devine said Sumac was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo in Cajamarca, Peru, on Sept. 13, 1922. She later said she began singing when she was about 9.
After joining Vivanco’s large group of native singers, dancers and musicians, she made her radio debut in 1942; she and Vivanco were married the same year.
In Argentina in 1943, she and Vivanco’s group recorded a series of Peruvian folk songs. By then, she was known professionally as Imma Sumack (Capitol Records later changed the spelling).
In 1946, she and her husband moved to New York City, where they performed as the Inca Taky Trio, with Vivanco on guitar, Sumac singing soprano and her cousin, Cholita Rivero, singing contralto and dancing.
After making her name as a solo artist, Sumac toured around the world for several years in the `60s, but her popularity in America had waned by then.
In 1971, she recorded a psychedelic rock album that was not widely released, “Miracles,” and “semi-retired” to Peru later in the decade – at least that’s what she always said.
Sumac did return to performing in 1984 at the Vine Street Bar & Grill and the Cinegrill in Hollywood. In the early ’90s, she toured in Europe and continued to perform until 1997.
On 14 november ESP Disk will release
From the liner notes: “Probably the most interesting aspect of this disk is that it shows how different Yma and her music were in front of an audience rather than in a recording studio. Not only is her singing different but also the ‘sound’ of her music. One clearly begins to understand the reasons for the problems that arose for the group once the recordings were released.”
The album is available from Amazon.com
Two reliable sources inform us that the rumor about Yma Sumac’s death is not true. To quote her former secretary Sara Cloudwater: “Madame Sumac is alive and well. She is planning on doing some new recordings which should come as welcome news to her fans.”
