Yma Súmac
Encyclopedia
Yma Sumac was a noted Peru
vian soprano
. In the 1950s, she was one of the most famous proponents of exotica
music. She became an international success based on her extreme vocal range
, which was said to be "well over four octave
s" and was sometimes claimed to span even five octaves at her peak.
Yma Sumac recorded an extraordinarily wide vocal range
of slightly over 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) (1953). She was also apparently able to sing in an eerie "double voice".
, Cajamarca
, Peru
. While one of her "official" websites says that the "official date" of her birth is September 10, the date on a different "official" website is given as September 13, 1922 (according to her personal assistant, who claimed to have seen her birth certificate). Other dates mentioned in her various biographies range from 1921 to 1929. Some sources 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
. Her New York Times obituary reported that, "The largest and most persistent fabrication about Ms. Sumac was that she was actually a housewife from Brooklyn
named Amy Camus, her name spelled backward. The fact is that the government of Peru in 1946 formally supported her claim to be descended from Atahualpa, the last Incan emperor."
Chávarri adopted the stage name of Imma Sumack (also spelled Ymma Sumack and Ima Sumack) before she left South America to go 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".
Imma Sumack first appeared on radio in 1942 and married composer and bandleader, Moisés Vivanco, on June 6 of the same year. 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 forty-six Indian dancers, singers, and musicians.
In 1946, Sumack and Vivanco moved to New York City, where they performed as the Inka 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
. 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 E. Y. "Yip" Harburg
, but Sumac's three numbers were the work of Vivanco with one co-written by Vivanco and Fain.
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 on July 22, 1955. In 1959, she popularized Jorge Bravo de Rueda
's classic song "Vírgenes del Sol" on her Fuego del Ande long playing album (LP).
In 1957, Sumac and Vivanco divorced, their dispute making news in Los Angeles
. They remarried that same year, but divorced again in 1965.
Apparently due to financial difficulties, Yma Sumac and the original Inka Taky Trio went on a world tour in 1961, which lasted for five years. They performed in forty cities in the Soviet Union
, and afterward throughout 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 at the Chateau Madrid and Town Hall. In the 1980s, she resumed her career under the management of Alan Eichler
and had a number of concerts both in the U.S. and abroad, including the Hollywood Roosevelt's Cinegrill, New York's Ballroom in 1987 (where she was held-over for seven weeks to SRO crowds) 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 Jan Hooks
and Sam Donaldson
. She also recorded a new German "techno" dance record, "Mambo ConFusion."
In 1989, she sang once again at the Ballroom in New York and returned to Europe for the first time in 30 years to headline the BRT's "Gala Bertjes" TV special in Brussels as well as the "Etoile Palace" program in Paris hosted by Frederic Mitterrand. 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 as well as two more in Montreal
, Canada, in July 1997 as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
In 1992, Günther Czernetsky directed a documentary for German television entitled 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 Kahlúa
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
. "Gopher Mambo" was also used in an act of the Cirque Du Soleil show Quidam
. The songs "Goomba Boomba" and "Malambo No. 1" appeared in Death to Smoochy
.
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.
Yma Sumac died on November 1, 2008, aged 86 at an assisted-living home in Los Angeles
, nine months after being diagnosed as having colon cancer. She was interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
in Hollywood, California in the "Sanctuary of Memories" section.
described her voice as "very low and warm, very high and birdlike", noting that her range "is very close to four octaves, but is in no way inhuman or outlandish in sound."
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
. In the 1950s, she was one of the most famous proponents of exotica
Exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same title, popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s, typically with the suburban set who came of age during World War II. The musical colloquialism, exotica, means tropical ersatz: the non-native, pseudo experience of Oceania...
music. She became an international success based on her extreme vocal range
Vocal range
Vocal range is the measure of the breadth of pitches that a human voice can phonate. Although the study of vocal range has little practical application in terms of speech, it is a topic of study within linguistics, phonetics, and speech and language pathology, particularly in relation to the study...
, which was said to be "well over four octave
Octave
In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
s" and was sometimes claimed to span even five octaves at her peak.
Yma Sumac recorded an extraordinarily wide vocal range
Vocal range
Vocal range is the measure of the breadth of pitches that a human voice can phonate. Although the study of vocal range has little practical application in terms of speech, it is a topic of study within linguistics, phonetics, and speech and language pathology, particularly in relation to the study...
of slightly over four octaves from B2 to C#7 (approximately 123 to 2270 Hz). She was able to sing notes in the low baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
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 an eerie "double voice".
Biography
Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo was born on September 13, 1922, in IchocánIchocán
Ichocán is a town in the Cajamarca region, San Marcos Province, Ichocán District, Peru.-Geography:Ichocán is at an altitude of . It is from Cajamarca. The imposing hills called "The Church" and "The Bell" can be seen when approaching this district....
, Cajamarca
Cajamarca
Cajamarca may refer to:Colombia*Cajamarca, Tolima a town and municipality in Tolima DepartmentPeru* Cajamarca, city in Peru.* Cajamarca District, district in the Cajamarca province.* Cajamarca Province, province in the Cajamarca region....
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
. While one of her "official" websites says that the "official date" of her birth is September 10, the date on a different "official" website is given as September 13, 1922 (according to her personal assistant, who claimed to have seen her birth certificate). Other dates mentioned in her various biographies range from 1921 to 1929. Some sources claim that she was not born in Ichocán, but in a nearby village, or possibly in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the 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
Atahualpa
Atahualpa, Atahuallpa, Atabalipa, or Atawallpa , was the last Sapa Inca or sovereign emperor of the Tahuantinsuyu, or the Inca Empire, prior to the Spanish conquest of Peru...
. Her New York Times obituary reported that, "The largest and most persistent fabrication about Ms. Sumac was that she was actually a housewife from Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
named Amy Camus, her name spelled backward. The fact is that the government of Peru in 1946 formally supported her claim to be descended from Atahualpa, the last Incan emperor."
Chávarri adopted the stage name of Imma Sumack (also spelled Ymma Sumack and Ima Sumack) before she left South America to go to the U.S. The stage name was based on her mother's name, which was derived from Ima Shumaq, Quechua
Quechua languages
Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...
for "how beautiful!" although in interviews she claimed it meant "beautiful flower" or "beautiful girl".
Imma Sumack first appeared on radio in 1942 and married composer and bandleader, Moisés Vivanco, on June 6 of the same year. She recorded at least eighteen tracks of Peruvian folk songs in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
in 1943. These early recordings for the Odeon
Odeon Records
Odeon Records was a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. It was named after a famous theatre in Paris, whose classical dome appears on the Odeon record label....
label featured Moisés Vivanco's group, Compañía Peruana de Arte, a group of forty-six Indian dancers, singers, and musicians.
In 1946, Sumack and Vivanco moved to New York City, where they performed as the Inka Taky Trio, Sumack singing soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
, Vivanco on guitar, and her cousin Cholita Rivero singing contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
and dancing. Sumack bore a son, Charles, in 1949, and was signed by Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
in 1950, at which time her stage name became Yma Sumac.
During the 1950s, Yma Sumac produced a series of legendary lounge music
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
recordings featuring Hollywood-style versions of Incan and South American folk songs, working with the likes of Les Baxter
Les Baxter
Les Baxter was an American musician and composer.Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer...
and Billy May
Billy May
William E. "Billy" May was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music, for The Green Hornet , Batman , and Naked City and collaborated on films, such as Pennies from Heaven , and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return among...
. 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
Flahooley
Flahooley is a musical with a book by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Sammy Fain.The allegorical tale is set in fictional Capsulanti, USA, site of the headquarters for B.G. Bigelow, Incorporated, the largest toy corporation in the world...
, in 1951, as a foreign princess who brings Aladdin
Aladdin
Aladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
's lamp to an American toy factory to have it repaired. The show's score was by Sammy Fain
Sammy Fain
Sammy Fain was an American composer of popular music.-Biography:Sammy Fain was born in New York City. In 1923, Fain appeared with Artie Dunn in a short film directed by Lee De Forest filmed in DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process. In 1925, Fain left the Fain-Dunn act to devote himself to...
and E. Y. "Yip" Harburg
Yip Harburg
Edgar Yipsel Harburg , known as E.Y. Harburg or Yip Harburg, was an American popular song lyricist who worked with many well-known composers...
, but Sumac's three numbers were the work of Vivanco with one co-written by Vivanco and Fain.
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
Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...
. During the height of Sumac's popularity, she appeared in the films Secret of the Incas
Secret of the Incas
Secret of the Incas is a 1954 adventure film starring Charlton Heston as adventurer Harry Steele, on the trail of an ancient Incan artifact.-Cast:*Charlton Heston as Harry Steele, adventurer*Robert Young as Stanley Moorhead...
(1954) and Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam (film)
Omar Khayyam is an American movie directed by William Dieterle, filmed in 1956 and released in 1957...
(1957). She became a U.S. citizen on July 22, 1955. In 1959, she popularized Jorge Bravo de Rueda
Jorge Bravo de Rueda
Jorge Bravo de Rueda was a Peruvian pianist and composer.He was born in Chancay, Peru. Inspired by the huaynos of Andean music, he composed the internationally popular tune for guitar and pan flutes "Vírgenes del Sol" : possibly the second best-known Peruvian song worldwide...
's classic song "Vírgenes del Sol" on her Fuego del Ande long playing album (LP).
In 1957, Sumac and Vivanco divorced, their dispute making news in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. They remarried that same year, but divorced again in 1965.
Apparently due to financial difficulties, Yma Sumac and the original Inka Taky Trio went on a world tour in 1961, which lasted for five years. They performed in forty cities in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and afterward throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Their performance in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, 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 at the Chateau Madrid and Town Hall. In the 1980s, she resumed her career under the management of Alan Eichler
Alan Eichler
Alan Eichler is a theatrical producer, talent manager and press agent who has represented numerous stage productions, produced Grammy-winning record albums and managed such singers as Anita O'Day, Hadda Brooks, Nellie Lutcher, Ruth Brown, Johnnie Ray and Yma Sumac-Early life and career:Born in...
and had a number of concerts both in the U.S. and abroad, including the Hollywood Roosevelt's Cinegrill, New York's Ballroom in 1987 (where she was held-over for seven weeks to SRO crowds) and several San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
shows at the Theatre on the Square among others. In 1987, she also recorded the song "I Wonder" from the Disney
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
film Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault or Little Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm is a classic fairytale involving a beautiful princess, enchantment, and a handsome prince...
for Stay Awake
Stay Awake (album)
Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films is a 1988 tribute album recorded by various artists performing songs from Disney films...
, an album of songs from Disney
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
movies, produced by Hal Willner
Hal Willner
Hal Willner is an American music producer working in recording, films, TV and live events. He is best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles...
. She sang "Ataypura" during a March 19, 1987, appearance on Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
, appearing alongside Jan Hooks
Jan Hooks
Janet V. "Jan" Hooks is an American actress and comedienne best known for her work on NBC's Saturday Night Live , on which she appeared from 1986 to 1991...
and Sam Donaldson
Sam Donaldson
Samuel Andrew "Sam" Donaldson, Jr. is a reporter and news anchor, serving with ABC News from 1967 to the present, best known as the network's White House Correspondent and as a panelist and later co-anchor of the network's Sunday Program "This Week."-Early life and career:Donaldson was born in El...
. She also recorded a new German "techno" dance record, "Mambo ConFusion."
In 1989, she sang once again at the Ballroom in New York and returned to Europe for the first time in 30 years to headline the BRT's "Gala Bertjes" TV special in Brussels as well as the "Etoile Palace" program in Paris hosted by Frederic Mitterrand. In March 1990, she played the role of Heidi in Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
's Follies
Follies
Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies," a musical revue , that played in that theatre between the World Wars...
, in Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, 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 as well as two more in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada, in July 1997 as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
In 1992, Günther Czernetsky directed a documentary for German television entitled Yma Sumac — Hollywoods Inkaprinzessin (Yma Sumac — Hollywood's Inca Princess).
With the resurgence of lounge music
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
in the late 1990s, Sumac's profile rose again when the song "Ataypura" was featured in the Coen Brothers
Coen Brothers
Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...
film, The Big Lebowski
The Big Lebowski
The Big Lebowski is a 1998 comedy film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Jeff Bridges stars as Jeff Lebowski, an unemployed Los Angeles slacker and avid bowler, who is referred to as "The Dude". After a case of mistaken identity, The Dude is introduced to a millionaire also named...
. Her song "Bo Mambo" appeared in a commercial for Kahlúa
Kahlúa
Kahlúa is a Mexican coffee-flavored rum-based liqueur. It is dense and sweet, with the distinct taste of coffee, from which it is made. Kahlúa also contains sugar, corn syrup and vanilla bean.-History:...
liquor and was sampled for the song "Hands Up" by The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...
. The song "Gopher Mambo" was used in the films Ordinary Decent Criminal
Ordinary Decent Criminal
Ordinary Decent Criminal is a 2000 crime/comedy film, directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan, written by Gerard Stembridge. The film is loosely based on the story of Martin Cahill, a famous Irish crime boss.- Plot :...
, Dead Husbands, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is a 2002 biographical spy film depicting the life of popular game show host and producer Chuck Barris, who claimed to have also been an assassin for the Central Intelligence Agency...
. "Gopher Mambo" was also used in an act of the Cirque Du Soleil show Quidam
Quidam
Quidam is the ninth stage show produced by Cirque du Soleil. It premiered in April 1996 and has now been watched by millions of spectators around the world...
. The songs "Goomba Boomba" and "Malambo No. 1" appeared in Death to Smoochy
Death to Smoochy
Death to Smoochy is a 2002 American dark comedy film directed by and starring Danny DeVito and starring Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, and Jon Stewart.-Plot:...
.
On May 6, 2006, Sumac flew to Lima, where she was presented the Orden del Sol award by Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo
Alejandro Toledo
Alejandro Celestino Toledo Manrique is a politician who was President of Peru from 2001 to 2006. He was elected in April 2001, defeating former President Alan García...
and the Jorge Basadre
Jorge Basadre
Jorge Basadre Grohmann was a Peruvian historian known for his extensive publications about the independent history of his country...
medal by the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.
Yma Sumac died on November 1, 2008, aged 86 at an assisted-living home in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, nine months after being diagnosed as having colon cancer. She was interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles, California. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywood...
in Hollywood, California in the "Sanctuary of Memories" section.
Critical reception
In 1954, classical composer Virgil ThomsonVirgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
described her voice as "very low and warm, very high and birdlike", noting that her range "is very close to four octaves, but is in no way inhuman or outlandish in sound."
Discography
- At least eighteen tracks of Peruvian folk songs in Argentina in 1943 for the Odeon RecordsOdeon RecordsOdeon Records was a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. It was named after a famous theatre in Paris, whose classical dome appears on the Odeon record label....
label, with Moisés Vivanco's group, Compañía Peruana de Arte—a group of forty-six Indian dancers, singers, and musicians. (At least five additional tracks from these sessions are instrumentals or feature other vocalists.)(10" 78 rpm) - Voice of the XtabayVoice of the XtabayVoice of the Xtabay is the first studio album by Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac. It was released on 1950 by Capitol Records. It was produced and composed by Les Baxter, along with Moisés Vivanco and John Rose as composers. The album features the Sumac's voice with a wide vocal range, accompanied of...
(1950), Capitol RecordsCapitol RecordsCapitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
CD-244 (78 rpm set) - Flahooley (1951), Capitol DF-284 (78 rpm set)
- Legend of the Sun Virgin (1952), Capitol DDN-299 (78 rpm set)
- Inca Taqui (1953), Capitol L-243 (10" LP)
- Mambo! (1954), Capitol T-564 (10" LP)
- Voice of the Xtabay & Inca Taqui, (1955) Capitol W-684 (both on one 12" LP)
- Legend of the Jivaro (1957), Capitol T-770 (12" LP)
- Fuego Del Ande (1959), Capitol T-1169 (Monophonic); ST 1169 (Stereo) (mono and stereo versions were separate recordings) (12" LP)
- Recital (1961), Electrecord EDE-073 (12" LP) — reissued on CD, ESP-DISK' 4029 (2006)
- Miracles (1971), London XPS 608 (12" LP) — reissued with two additional tracks as Yma Rocks! (1998), ShamLys JOM-1027-2 (CD)
- I Wonder on Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney FilmsStay Awake (album)Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films is a 1988 tribute album recorded by various artists performing songs from Disney films...
, 1988 (one of Various Artists) - Mambo ConFusion (1991), Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin (Germany CD Maxi-Single), DSB 3025-5 (CD Maxi-Single contains 'Radio Version,' longer 'Maxi Version,' and 'Mambo Hip' version)
External links
- Yma-Sumac.com
- Sunvirgin.com
- Yma Sumac at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
- Excerpts from book on Yma Sumac
- Brief review of Sumac at the Cotillion Room New York City, September 19, 1951
- "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.
- Dalton, Andrew. November 3, 2008.
- "Yma Sumac, Vocalist of the Exotic, Dies at 86", The New York Times, November 4, 2008.