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Friday 15 April 2022

Yma Sumac


Two EP's from the 50's from the Queen of Exotica is next on the agenda followed by an updated version from the 90's !!

Yma Sumac ( September 10, 1923 – November 1, 2008), was a Peruvian–American coloratura soprano. In the 1950s, she was one of the most famous exponents of exotica music.
Sumac was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo on September 10, 1923, in Ichocán, a historically Indian 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 1950s 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. She was the youngest of six children. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father a civic leader.

Sumac became an international success based on her extreme vocal range. She had six-and-a-half octaves according to some reports, (A typical trained singer has a range of about three octaves.) She was able to sing notes in the low baritone register as well as notes above the range of an ordinary soprano and notes in the whistle register. 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".

She married Moisés Vivanco on June 6, 1942. After this date, Moises and Yma toured South America and Mexico as a group of fourteen musicians called Imma Sumack and the Conjunto Folklorico Peruana. In 1946, Sumac and Vivanco moved to New York City where they performed as the Inka Taqui Trio, Sumac singing soprano, Vivanco on guitar, and her cousin, Cholita Rivero, singing contralto and dancing. The group was unable to attain any success; their participation in South American Music Festival in Carnegie Hall was reviewed positively. She was signed by Capitol Records in 1950, at which time her stage name became Yma Sumac. Her first album, Voice of the Xtabay, launched a period of fame that included performances at the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall. 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 Queen. She presented more than 80 concerts in London and 16 concerts in Paris.. During the 1950s, she produced a series of lounge music recordings featuring Hollywood-style versions of Incan and South American folk songs, working with Les Baxter and Billy May. She put out a number of hit albums, such as Mambo! (1954) and Fuego del Ande (1959). Capitol Records, 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).
Sumac had a wide vocal register, could emit notes above a coloratura soprano to the low notes of a bass, had one of the widest vocal ranges, being able to emit notes from the tessitura of sopranino, soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone and bass, was the only person able to do the triple coloratura or the trill of the birds......(Info Edited From Wikipedia)

1. Bo Mambo
2. Taki Rari
3. Gopher
4. Chicken Talk
5. Malambo No 2
6. Five Bottles Mambo
7. Indian carnival
9. Jungla 





3 Gopher

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