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members weekly recommendation Oct. 13


oldbuckster

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YMA SUMAC

http://www.yma-sumac.com/news.htm

Yma_SUmac.jpg

I'm not sure how to explain this one. If you have seen Fifth Element and like the song by the blue diva then you would love Yma Sumac. Vocals are unique and interesting to say the least. Lounge exotica, mambo with extreme vocals. If this sounds like something you might like search youtube.

from wik


Yma Sumac 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 which was commonly claimed to span four and even five octaves at its peak.


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).

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.

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 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 1959, she popularized Jorge Bravo de Rueda's classic song "Vírgenes del Sol" on her Fuego del Ande LP.


In 1957, Sumac and Vivanco divorced, their dispute making news in Los Angeles.
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 - Hollywood's 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 Sumac 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).


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.

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STILL ALIVE AND WELL ....... Johnny Winter

Oldbuckster Returning Soon !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are there stories to tell of your time away from the madness?

Or perchance did you let the guys in the white coats "find" you again to see how ole Dr Electroshock is doing? (heehee I left him in the straight jacket the last time I visited ... )

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  • 2 weeks later...

YMA SUMAC

http://www.yma-sumac.com/news.htm

Yma_SUmac.jpg

I'm not sure how to explain this one. If you have seen Fifth Element and like the song by the blue diva then you would love Yma Sumac. Vocals are unique and interesting to say the least. Lounge exotica, mambo with extreme vocals. If this sounds like something you might like search youtube.

from wik


Yma Sumac 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 which was commonly claimed to span four and even five octaves at its peak.

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).

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.

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 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 1959, she popularized Jorge Bravo de Rueda's classic song "Vírgenes del Sol" on her Fuego del Ande LP.

In 1957, Sumac and Vivanco divorced, their dispute making news in Los Angeles.
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 - Hollywood's 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 Sumac 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).

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.

Thanks so much for this info! I went to the website and listened to EVERYTHING that they had for demo. I then googled for her and ordered two CDs (I would have perfered LPs but you get what you can!) I can't wait for the CDs to come!

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YMA SUMAC

http://www.yma-sumac.com/news.htm

Yma_SUmac.jpg

I'm not sure how to explain this one. If you have seen Fifth Element and like the song by the blue diva then you would love Yma Sumac. Vocals are unique and interesting to say the least. Lounge exotica, mambo with extreme vocals. If this sounds like something you might like search youtube.

from wik


Yma Sumac 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 which was commonly claimed to span four and even five octaves at its peak.

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).

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.

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 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 1959, she popularized Jorge Bravo de Rueda's classic song "Vírgenes del Sol" on her Fuego del Ande LP.

In 1957, Sumac and Vivanco divorced, their dispute making news in Los Angeles.
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 - Hollywood's 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 Sumac 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).

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.

Thanks so much for this info! I went to the website and listened to EVERYTHING that they had for demo. I then googled for her and ordered two CDs (I would have perfered LPs but you get what you can!) I can't wait for the CDs to come!

WOW someone actually liked one of my suggestions..... This is a miracle :) Usually this threads die after I post. I'm glad you like it she is not for the faint of heart. Very different especially for the times. I've also been listening to Ertha Kitt lately she was a hoot as well.

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YMA SUMAC passed away November 3rd.





Yma Sumac



Singer whose wide vocal range and exotic Peruvian background made her a
phenomenon in the 1950s
.










Last Updated: 7:36PM GMT 03 Nov 2008







Yma Sumac

Yma Sumac




Yma Sumac
, who died on Saturday, probably aged 86, was a Peruvian singer and
a phenomenon in the 1950s whose varied, tempestuous career started when her
extraordinary voice, ranging over several octaves, startled people on the
album Voice of Xtabuy.



The album went straight into the bestseller lists and was followed by Mambo!,
arranged by Billy May, and Fuego del Ande (1959), perhaps her best record.
British radio audiences were intrigued and countless requests flooded in to
Children’s Choice, Two-Way Family Favourites and Housewives’ Choice.



Broadway was fascinated by her appearance in Flahooley (which also starred
the young Barbara Cook) in the spring of 1951.



This strange musical satire starred Ernest Truex and concerned a genie in a
lamp carelessly left behind at a toy factory by an Arabian princess.



The show gave the extraordinary range of Yma Sumac’s voice a chance to range
from low contralto to A above high C, but it also revealed that the voice
had not been trained.



Her part and the two songs it entailed had been hastily and badly written.



Yma Sumac claimed to have been born on September 10 1927 (or 1925), at
Ichocán, a mountain town north of Lima, though her personal assistant, who
claimed to have seen her birth certificate, gave her date of birth as
September 13 1922. Her Spanish name was Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavárri
del Castillo; her Indian name, which meant “how beautiful”, was Imma Sumack,
which she later altered to Yma Sumac.



She began to sing at church festivals and in 1941 a government official with a
keen ear heard her. As a result Carlos Moises Vivanco, who was a musician
and executive with the Peruvian Broadcasting Company, heard her and became
her manager and, on in 1942, her husband as well.



Yma Sumac joined her husband’s Inca Taky Trio, which toured South America and
Mexico and reached the United States in 1946 .



When she compromised her own musical impulses by appearing at the Blue Angel
in New York, Capitol Records decided to take a risk; her first album for
them, produced by Alan Livingstone, was released in 1950 . The record was a
hit and, wearing exotic clothes and jewellery, Yma Sumac played to packed
houses at the Hollywood Bowl and New York’s Hotel Pierre. Her voice became
so well known that she became the subject of impersonations by comediennes :
Joan Turner would do three or four bars of a Simac number and then spit, and
growl: “Yma Tarmac - huh!’



She made two Hollywood films, neither any use: Secret of the Incas in 1954
marked one of Charlton Heston’s first appearances. In 1957 Omar Khayyam,
which starred Cornel Wilde, was little better. The audiences would have
preferred it as a musical since Yma Sumac had considerably livened up
Hollywood’s version of Persian history.



In the latter part of the decade she divorced her husband, after he faced in a
paternity suit brought by his secretary, who had had his twins. Yma Sumac
remarried him in 1961, but they soon broke up again.



She toured North America with the Montreal and Toronto symphony orchestras;
completed a concert tour of the West Coast and in 1961 toured the Soviet
Union.



Yma Sumac fell out of favour during the 1960s, and spent the decade touring
small venues. She attempted a comeback in America in 1968 with a disastrous
concert in California. In 1972 she made Miracles, her first album for 13
years. It was not a success. However, her work continued to feature
occasionally in soundtracks for films, and she gradually acquired a cult
following. Bruce Springsteen declared: “It takes only a fraction of a second
to succumb to her unique voice.”



During the early 1980s she recorded several more records and performed at
Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.



In 1987 she appeared on a collection of Disney songs entitled Stay Awake,
alongside such figures as Ringo Starr and Sinead O’Connor.



She had a run of several weeks at the Ballroom in New York where, flanked by
what purported to be Incan statues, she was greeted by “young boys
screaming. I was shocked”, she said. “But they explained to me that it was
because they adore Yma Sumac. All the big stars come to see Yma Sumac. What
is the name of that one, I think Madonna?”



Yma Sumac never remarried. She is survived by her son.



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