Yma Sumac
Yma Sumac | |
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Born | Zoila Emperatriz September 13, 1922 Callao, Peru |
Died | November 1, 2008 Los Angeles, United States | (aged 86)
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Musical career | |
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Years active | 1938–1976, 1984–1997 |
Signature | |
Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo (born Zoila Emperatriz Chávarri Castillo; September 13, 1922 were other successes.
In 1951, Sumac became the first Latin American female singer to debut on Broadway.[8] In "Chuncho (The Forest Creatures)" (1953), she developed her own technical singing,[13] named "double voice"[14] or "triple coloratura".[13] At the same time, she performed in the Carnegie Hall[15] and Lewisohn Stadium.[16] In 1960 she became the first Latin American woman to get a phonograph record star[17] on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[18] Afterwards she toured the Soviet Union,[19] selling more than 20 million tickets.[19] According to Variety in 1974,[20] Sumac had more than 3,000 concerts "covering the entire globe",[20] breaking any previous records by a performer.[20] Fashion magazine V listed her as one of the 9 international fashion icons of all times in 2010.[21][3] She has sold over 40 million records, which makes her the best-selling Peruvian singer in history.[22][23][24]
Early life
Sumac was born Zoila Emperatriz Chávarri Castillo on September 13, 1922 in Callao.[1][3] Then the family (a middle class one) moved to Cajamarca,[3] where she spent her childhood.[3][7] Her parents were the civic leader[7] Sixto Chávarri (Cajamarca)[1][3] and the schoolteacher[7] Emilia Castillo (Ancash).[1][3] Sumac was the youngest of six children.[3] Growing up with the air of the Andean mountains, imitating the birds and other animals,[7] she was "unintentionally making" her huge vocal range.[7] In 1934, she traveled to live in Lima with her relatives.[3] After being privately tutored from the age of 5,[3] she entered a Catholic school in 1935.[3]
Career
Probably Sumac's first appearance was on August 16, 1938,[25] with Moises Vivanco in a religious festival at Callao.[25] She graduated high school in 1940.[3] She recorded at least 18 tracks[26] of Peruvian folk songs in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1943. These early recordings for the Odeon label featured composer Moisés Vivanco's troupe Compañía Peruana de Arte, of 16 Peruvian dancers, singers, and musicians.[27]
She was discovered by Les Baxter[28] and 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.[29]
In 1950, she made her first tour to Europe and Africa, and debuted at the
The 1950s were the years of Sumac's greatest popularity; She played
She became a U.S. citizen on July 22, 1955. In 1959, she performed Jorge Bravo de Rueda's classic song "Vírgenes del Sol" on her album Fuego del Ande. In 1957 Sumac and Vivanco divorced, after Vivanco sired twins with another woman. They remarried that same year, but a second divorce followed in 1965. Apparently due to financial difficulties, Sumac and the original Inka Taky Trio went on a world tour in 1960, which lasted for five years. They performed in 40 cities in the Soviet Union for over six months, and a film was shot recording some moments of the tour,[32] 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. Sumac spent the rest of the 1960s performing sporadically.[33]
Personal life
She married Moisés Vivanco on June 6, 1942.[27] After this date, Moisés and Yma toured South America and Mexico as a group of fourteen musicians called Imma Sumack and the Conjunto Folklorico Peruano. Some people in Peru did not appreciate her style of singing, most notably the writer Jose Maria Arguedas (La Prensa, 1944). 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; however, their participation in the South American Music Festival in Carnegie Hall was reviewed positively. In 1949, Yma gave birth to their only child Carlos.[34]
Vocal range
She had five octaves according to some reports,[35] but other reports (and recordings) document four-and-a-half at the peak of her singing career.[2][36] Shortly after her death, the BBC noted that a typical trained singer has a range of about three octaves.[37]
In 1954, composer and music critic Virgil Thomson described Sumac's voice as "very low and warm, very high and birdlike," noting that her range "is very close to five octaves, but is in no way inhuman or outlandish in sound."[2]
Later career
This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2019) |
In 1971, Sumac released a
In 1989, she sang again at the Ballroom in New York and returned to Europe for the first time in 30 years to headline the
She also gave several concerts in the summer of 1996 in
Her song "Bo Mambo" appeared in a commercial for
On May 6, 2006, Sumac flew to
Death
Sumac died on November 1, 2008, aged 86, at an assisted living home in Los Angeles, California, nine months after being diagnosed with
On September 13, 2016, a Google Doodle depicted Sumac.[43]
September 20, 2022 a new memorial bust statue was unveiled at her final resting place, at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in honor of the 100th anniversary of her birth.
Myths
Stories published in the 1950s claimed that she was an
For years, rumors circulated that Sumac was a housewife from
Discography
A 1943 recording session in Argentina included 23 songs, released on 78 rpm Odeon Records.[46] Sumac's 1952 album Legend of the Sun Virgin was reissued in 2020 (digitally and on vinyl records) by Madrid label Ellas Rugen (Ladies Who Roar) Records, dedicated to the greatest female Latin American singers of the second half of the 20th century.[47][48]
Albums
- Voice of the Xtabay (Capitol, 1950)
- Legend of the Sun Virgin (Capitol, 1952)
- Inca Taqui (Capitol, 1953)
- Mambo! (Capitol, 1954)
- Legend of the Jivaro (Capitol, 1957)
- Fuego Del Ande (Capitol, 1959)
- Recital (Electrecord, 1961)
- Miracles (London, 1971)
Compilations
- The Spell of Yma Sumac (Pair, 1987)
- Amor Indio (Saludos Amigos, 1994)
- Shou Condor (Promo Sound, 1997)
- The Ultimate Yma Sumac Collection (Capitol, 2000)
- Virgin of the Sun God (Old Fashion, 2002)
- The Exotic Sounds of Yma Sumac (Sounds of the World, 2002)
- Queen of Exotica (Universe, 2005)
Filmography (partial)
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1954 | Secret of the Incas | Kori-Tica | performs "Taita Inty", "Tumpa!", "Ataypura!" |
1957 | Omar Khayyam | Karina | performs "Lament" |
1958 | Música de siempre | Herself | performs "Chuncho" |
1960 | Las canciones unidas | Herself | performs "Taita Inty" |
References
Notes
- ^ a b c d "Documentos legales de Yma Súmac y Moisés Vivanco". Galeria La Sumac. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e Martin, Douglas (November 4, 2008). "Yma Sumac, Vocalist of the Exotic, Dies at 86". The New York Times. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "The Yma Sumac Timeline". yma-sumac.com. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-945186-45-5.
- ^ "Imanay". www.runa-simi.org (in Spanish). Retrieved January 26, 2023.
- ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f Yma Sumac [exotica vocalist]: Musician Snapshots. SBE Media. September 11, 2015.
- ^ a b "El regreso de Yma Sumac, la soprano inca que cantaba en cinco octavas y se adelantó 70 años a Rosalía". abc (in Spanish). January 14, 2021. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
- ^ Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. April 28, 1951. p. 24.
- ^ "Barry's Hits of All Decades Pop rock n roll Music Chart Hits". hitsofalldecades.com. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
- ^ Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. February 23, 1952.
- ^ a b YMA SUMAC – HOLLYWOODS INKAPRINZESSIN, retrieved January 27, 2023
- ^ a b PERÚ, NOTICIAS EL COMERCIO (September 5, 2016). "Freddie Mercury: solo dos peruanos podrían competir con su voz | LUCES". El Comercio (in Spanish). Retrieved January 27, 2023.
- ^ Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. October 3, 1953.
- ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
- ^ "La inigualable y exótica Yma Sumac, primera iberoamericana en el Paseo de la Fama de Hollywood". www.notimerica.com. Europa Press. November 1, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
- ^ Chad (October 25, 2019). "Yma Sumac". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
- ^ a b "Yma Súmac, la princesa inca que hechizó al mundo con su voz | Radiónica". www.radionica.rocks. June 20, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
- ^ a b c "Periódicos y revistas (Década 1970)". Galeria La Sumac. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
- ISBN 978-607-571-298-7.
- ISBN 978-0-19-936643-9. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
- ^ "Yma Súmac: the greatest Peruvian voice of all time featured on the new iPhone12". peru.info. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
- ^ "Yma Súmac, la última princesa inca". Fundación BBVA Perú (in Spanish). Retrieved December 25, 2021.
- ^ a b "YMA SUMAC by ignacio tomaylla – Issuu". issuu.com. January 20, 2009. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
- ^ "Argentina Session 1943". SunVirgin.com. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
- ^ a b "Moisés Vivanco". SunVirgin.com. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
- OCLC 179838406.
- ^ Yma Sumac, August 8, 1950. Malibu, Hollywood Bowl, Recording Studio, Residence (90 photos by Peter Stackpole) for Life magazine
- ^ "Yma Sumac – Flahooley (Vinyl, Album)". Discogs.com. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ "Yma Sumac – Fuego Del Ande". Discogs.com. 1959.
- ^
Soviet Internationalism after Stalin by Tobias Rupprecht, Cambridge University Press, 2015, ISBN 9781107102880, p. 88
- ^ Alan Eichler (February 2, 2016). "Yma Sumac—1987 TV Interview, Linda Dano, Nancy Glass". YouTube. Retrieved October 28, 2019.
- ^ Yma Sumac [exotica vocalist]: Musician Snapshots Volume 3 of The Music You Should Hear Series by Stone Blue Editors, SBE Media, 2015.
- ^ David Richards, "The Trill of a Lifetime", The Washington Post (p. B1), March 2, 1987; accessed February 20, 2018.
Quote: "a voice that shot up five octaves" - ^ Dennis McLellan (November 3, 2008). "Yma Sumac, 'Peruvian songbird' with multi-octave range, dies at 86". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ "Why is a four octave vocal range so rare?". BBC News Magazine. November 5, 2008. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ "Rediscoveries : Alan Eichler is Bringing Vintage Cabaret Stars Back to Limelight". Los Angeles Times. October 2, 1988.
- ^ ISBN 1-85227-937-0.
- YouTube
- ^ "Yma Sumac Receives Highest Peruvian Honor", Sunvirgin.com; accessed October 14, 2015.
- ^ Andrew Dalton (November 3, 2008). "Peruvian-Born Singer Yma Sumac Dies At 86". CBS News. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
- ^ "Yma Sumac's 94th birthday". Google.com. September 13, 2016. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ "On the trail of Yma Sumac: The exotica legend came from Peru, but her career was all Hollywood". Los Angeles Times. March 23, 2017. Retrieved January 16, 2021.
- ^ "Critic Sums Up Yma Sumac" (PDF). Leonard Feather Scrapbook, July 1949 - May 1951 page 105. December 4, 1950. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
- ^ "Yma Sumac – Argentina Session 1943". Sunvirgin.com. Retrieved November 11, 2017.
- ^ Sam Jones (January 29, 2021). "The return of Yma Sumac: label to showcase singer to new generation". The Guardian.
- ^ "The Legend Of The Sun Virgin, by Yma Sumac". Ellas Rugen Records. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
Further reading
- Garth Cartwright, "Yma Sumac – Peruvian-born singer marketed in the US as an Inca princess", obituary in The Guardian, November 16, 2008.
- Carolina A Miranda, "On the trail of Yma Sumac: the exotica legend comes from Peru but her career was all Hollywood" in The Los Angeles Timesof March 23, 2017. Accessed 2017-04-19.
- Palmer, Ray; Ross, Jack (1951). "Yma Sumac...the Voice of the Incas".
Fate. Vol. 4, No. 8
External links
- Official website
- Yma Sumac, August 8, 1950. Malibu, Hollywood Bowl, Recording Studio, Residence (90 photos), by Peter Stackpole for LIFE magazine
- "Virgins of the Sun" on YouTube, (Jorge Bravo de Rueda)
Videos
- "Wimoweh (Mbube)", with Martin Denny on YouTube
- "Bo Mambo" on YouTube
- "Chuncho (The Forest Creatures)" (1999 digital remaster) on YouTube
- "Virgin of the Sun God (Taita Inty)" on YouTube