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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZSUMAC, Yma(b Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo, 13 September 1922, Cajamarca, Peru; d 1 November 2008, Silver Lake CA) Singer with a phenomenal range of more than four octaves. She said she began singing when she was about nine years old; she was allegedly discovered by a government official. Completely untrained, she joined Moises Vivanco's troupe of singers, dancers and musicians, sang over Radio Belgrano in Buenos Aires in 1942 and married Vivanco that year. In 1943 they recorded Peruvian folksongs in Argentina; she was spelling the name Imma Sumack. It was said that American soprano Grace Moore heard her while on tour in Lima and offered to help her get to the USA; she reached there in 1946, where they performed in New York City as the Inca Taky Trio, with Vivanco on guitar and her cousin Cholita Rivero singing contralto and dancing, the act they had toured South America with. Later she sang at Carnegie Hall and with symphony orchestras in Montreal, in Toronto and at the Hollywood Bowl; some thought she should have been a top coloratura in the opera house, but she became a pop cult. There was an early 10-inch LP on Coral; her Capitol 10-inch LP Voice Of The Xtabey was a no. 1 album in 1950, compositions/ arrangements by her husband with Conjunto Folklorico Peruana said to be based on Inca legends. Her next was Inca Taqui, the two combined on a 12-inch LP with the title of the first. She appeared on Broadway as a novelty in the Sammy Fain/Yip Harburg show Flahooley '51, given inapposite material which slowed down the action. On some of her albums she was accompanied by Les Baxter, Capitol's in-house expert at what passed for exotic sounds back then; Legend Of The Sun Virgin was no. 5 album '52; Fuego del Ande used various Latin rhythms; others included Legend Of The Jivaro and Mambo! (with Billy May). Album covers put her voluptuous figure in colourful costumes, and she appeared in low-budget films. An album called Recital in 1961 was later issued on an ESP CD; she also started a long tour of Russia that year. She was divorced from Vivanco and remarried him in the late 1950s, then divorced him again in 1965. She had supposedly semi-retired to Peru in the early 1960s, but apparently stayed in the USA the whole time; her star had faded but she clung to an aura of mystery. She made an album called Miracles in 1971 with Baxter, described as a psychedelic rock album, later reissued as Yma Rocks! She came back to performing in the 1980s as a taste of early '50s exotica was revived (soon a sub-category of 'lounge' music) and continued until 1997, her remarkable voice intact. Reissues and compilations included Live In Russia 1961 on Elect, The Spell Of Yma Sumac on Pair, Mambo! And More '97 on Rev-Ola/Creation. Much of the Capitol work was reissued on The Right Stuff '97, plus a compilation Sampler Exotica. |