Yma Súmac

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Yma Sumac on the cover of her collection The Ultimate Yma Sumac Collection
Yma Sumac on the cover of her collection The Ultimate Yma Sumac Collection

Yma Súmac (born in Ichocán, Cajamarca, Perú September 10, 1922), also earlier spelled Ymma Sumak (from Ima Shumaq, Quechua for "how beautiful!")[1] or Imma Sumack, is a noted vocalist of Peruvian origin. In the 1950s, she was one of the most famous proponents of exotica music, and became an international success based on the merits of her wide-ranging voice, which ranges "well over three octaves"[2] and was commonly claimed to span four[3] and five[4]octaves at its peak.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Yma Súmac was born on September 10, 1922 in Ichocán (Cajamarca, Peru) as Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo. Other dates mentioned in her various biographies range from 1921 to 1929. Some sources[5] claim that she was not born in Ichocán, but in a nearby village or possibly in Lima, and that her family owned a ranch in Ichocán where she spent most of her early life. It is also claimed that she is an Incan princess directly descended from Atahualpa. The story that she was actually born Amy Camus (Yma Sumac read backwards) in Brooklyn or Canada is a hoax.[6] It is documented in this reference that she was known as Imma Sumack in recordings made before she went to the U.S.; Capitol Records changed the spelling to the more exotic "Yma Sumac".

She first appeared on radio in 1942, and married composer and bandleader Moisés Vivanco on June 6 the same year. Using the stage name Imma Sumack [4], she recorded at least eighteen tracks of Peruvian folk songs in Argentina in 1943. These early recordings for the Odeon label featured Moisés Vivanco's group, Compañía Peruana de Arte — a group of 46 Indian dancers singers and musicians. In 1946, Yma Sumac and Vivanco moved to New York City, where she performed with the Inca Taky Trio, with Moisés Vivanco on guitar, Yma Sumac's cousin Cholita Rivero singing contralto and dancing, and Yma Sumac providing the soprano, until being signed by Capitol Records in 1950.

During the 1950s, she produced a series of legendary lounge recordings featuring Hollywood-style versions of Incan and South American folk songs, working with the likes of Les Baxter and Billy May. In 1951, she popularized Jorge Bravo de Rueda's classic song "Vírgenes del Sol". The combination of her extraordinary voice, exotic looks and stage personality made her a hit with American audiences. Sumac even 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 E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, but Sumac's four numbers were the work of Vivanco. Capitol Records, Sumac's home label, recorded the show, which failed but has lived on as a cult classic, in part because it also marked the Broadway debut of Barbara Cook. During the height of Sumac's popularity, she appeared in the films Secret of the Incas (1954) and Omar Khayyam (1957); she became a U.S. citizen July 22, 1955.

In 1957, she and Vivanco divorced. They remarried that same year before divorcing again in 1965. They had one son, Charles, born in 1949. Apparently due to financial difficulties, Yma Sumac and the original Inca Taky Trio went on a world tour in 1961, which lasted for five years. They performed in 40 cities in the Soviet Union, and afterwards all over Europe, Asia and Latin America. Their performance in Bucharest, Romania was recorded as the album Recital, her only 'live in concert' record. Yma Sumac spent the rest of the 1960s performing sporadically.

In 1971, she released a rock album, called Miracles, and then returned to live in Peru. She performed in concert from time to time during the 1970s in Peru and later in New York. In the 1980s, she had a number of concerts both in the U.S. and abroad including at New York's The Ballroom in 1987 and several San Francisco shows at the Theatre on the Square among others. In 1987, she also recorded the song "I Wonder" from the Disney film Sleeping Beauty for Stay Awake, an album of songs from Disney movies, produced by Hal Willner.

In 1989, she sang once again at The Ballroom in New York. In March 1990, she played the role of Heidi in Stephen Sondheim's Follies, in Long Beach, California — her first attempt at 'serious theater' since Flahooley in 1951. She also did several concerts in the summer of 1996 in San Francisco and Hollywood and two more in Montreal, Canada in July 1997 as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

In 1992, Günther Czernetsky directed a documentary titled Yma Sumac - Hollywoods Inkaprinzessin (Yma Sumac - Hollywood's Inca princess).

On May 2, 2006, Sumac flew to Lima, where she was given the "Orden del Sol" award by Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, and the Jorge Basadre medal by the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.

[edit] Recordings

  • At least 18 tracks of Peruvian folk songs in Argentina in 1943 for the Odeon label, with. Moisés Vivanco's group, Compañía Peruana de Arte—a group of 46 Indian dancers, singers and musicians. (10" 78rpm).
  • Voice of the Xtabay (1950), Capitol H-244 (10" LP)
  • Inca Taqui (1953), Capitol L-243 (10" LP)
  • Voice of the Xtabay, Capitol W-684 (both of the above on one 12" LP)
  • Legend of the Sun Virgin (1953), Capitol T-299
  • Mambo (1954), Capitol T-564
  • Legend of the Jivaro (1957), Capitol T-770
  • Fuego Del Andes (1959), Capitol ST 1169
  • Recital/Live in Bucharest (1961), ELECTRECOR EDE073
  • Miracles (1971), London XPS 608 - Reissued on CD as Yma Rocks! (1998), JOM-1027-2

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cusihuaman 2001: p. 47, 103
  2. ^ Ellen Highstein: 'Yma Sumac (Chavarri, Emperatriz)', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 8 August 2006), [1]
  3. ^ Clarke Fountain, "Yma Sumac: Hollywood's Inca Princess (review). All Movie Guide, reproduced in the New York Times. 1992. [2]
  4. ^ David Richards, "The Trill of a Lifetime; Exotic Singer Yma Sumac Meets a New Wave of Fans." The Washington Post, March 2, 1987, STYLE; PAGE B1. Accessed August 6, 2006, via Lexis Nexis, [3]
  5. ^ Yma Sumac official website
  6. ^ Yma Sumac official website

[edit] Sources

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