Yma Súmac

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Yma Súmac is a noted soprano 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 extreme vocal range "well over three octaves"[1], which was commonly claimed to span four and even five octaves at its peak[2][3].

Contents

[edit] Biography

Yma Súmac was born on September 13, 1922[4] Ichocán, Cajamarca, [5] Peru) as Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo. Other dates mentioned in her various biographies range from 1921 to 1929. Some sources[6] 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. Stories published in the 1950s claimed that she was an Incan princess directly descended from Atahualpa. A story claiming that she was actually born Amy Camus (Yma Sumac backwards) in Brooklyn or Canada was fabricated while she was performing in New York City in the early 1950s.[7] She adopted the stage name of Imma Sumack (also spelled Ymma Sumack and Ima Sumack) in South America before she went to the U.S. The stage name was based on her mother's name which was derived from Ima Shumaq, Quechua for "how beautiful!" although in interviews she claimed it meant "beautiful flower" or "beautiful girl".[8]

Imma Sumack first appeared on radio in 1942, and married composer and bandleader Moisés Vivanco on June 6 the same year. She recorded at least 23 tracks [9] 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, Sumack and Vivanco moved to New York City, where they performed as the Inca Taky Trio, Sumack singing soprano, Vivanco on guitar and her cousin Cholita Rivero singing contralto and dancing. Sumack bore a son, Charles, in 1949, and was signed by Capitol Records in 1950, at which time her stage name became "Yma Sumac".

During the 1950s, Yma Sumac produced a series of legendary lounge music 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 label, recorded the show. Flahooley closed quickly but the recording continues 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, Sumac and Vivanco divorced, their dispute making news in Los Angeles.[10] They remarried that same year before divorcing again in 1965. 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. She sang Ataypura during a March 19, 1987 appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, appearing alongside actor-comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Murray.

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 gave 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). With the resurgence of lounge music in the late 1990s, Sumac's profile rose again when the song Ataypura was featured in the Coen Brothers' film The Big Lebowski. Her song Bo Mambo appeared in a commercial for Kahlua liquor, and was sampled for the song Hands Up by the Black Eyed Peas. The song Gopher Mambo was used in the films Ordinary Decent Criminal Dead Husbands, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. The songs Goomba Boomba and Malambo No. 1 appeared in Death to Smoochy.

Yma Súmac is name-checked in the song Joe le taxi, sung by French pop star Vanessa Paradis, as an artist that Joe, the taxi driver, likes to listen to (along with Xavier Cugat). [11]

On May 6, 2006, Sumac flew to Lima, where she was presented the Orden del Sol award by Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, and the Jorge Basadre medal by the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.[12]

[edit] Voice

Yma Sumac recorded an extraordinarily wide vocal range of more than four octaves, from B2 to C♯7 (approximately 123 to 2270 Hz). 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) (1950).

[edit] Recordings

  • At least 23 tracks of Peruvian folk songs in Argentina in 1943 for the Odeon Records 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 Records H-244 (10" LP)[13]
  • 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), ESP-DISK' 4029
  • Miracles (1971), London XPS 608 - Reissued on CD as Yma Rocks! (1998), JOM-1027-2

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ellen Highstein: 'Yma Sumac (Chavarri, Emperatriz)', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 8 August 2006), [1]
  2. ^ Clarke Fountain, "Yma Sumac: Hollywood's Inca Princess (review). All Movie Guide, reproduced in the New York Times. 1992. [2]
  3. ^ 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]
  4. ^ Yma Sumac biography
  5. ^ Yma Sumac was not born in Callao as noted in unofficial sources [4]
  6. ^ Yma Sumac official website Clicking on Biography or search required; "ranch" will suffice.
  7. ^ Yma Sumac official website. The Real Amy Camus Story
  8. ^ Cusihuaman 2001: p. 47, 103
  9. ^ Argentina Session 1943
  10. ^ Los Angeles Times. April 24, 1957. Jack Smith. Inca-redible: Yma Sumac, Mate Stage Free-for-All
  11. ^ Joe le taxi Lyrics on Vanessa Paradis official website
  12. ^ Yma Sumac Receives Highest Peruvian Honor
  13. ^ "Four Octave Inca"

[edit] Sources

  • "Yma Sumac Becomes Citizen". New York Times, July 23, 1955, p. 10.
  • "Yma Sumac's Divorce Final". New York Times, May 21, 1958, p. 39.
  • "Yma Sumac... the Voice of the Incas". Fate (magazine), Vol. 4, No. 8, November-December 1951
  • Four Octave Inca, Pathfinder, November 11, 1950. Retrieved 16 Oct 2005. A piece contemporaneous with the release of Voice of the Xtabay.
  • Cusihuamán, Antonio. Diccionario Quechua Cuzco-Collao, 2001, Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos "Bartolomé de Las Casas". ISBN 9972-691-36-5
  • Limansky, Nicholas E. Yma Sumac - The Art Behind the Legend' 2008, YBK Publishers, New York City.