Mahalo Nomads & Beachcombers, Castaways, Drifters & Dreamers...

Face Beside the Fire is a forbidden island in the mind where conformity and dogma receive no neural berth.

Here the frenetic pace of modern life is but a distant memory and the natural world beckons you to indulge the primitive, the sensuous and sublime.

It is a place as timeless as infinity and infinite as imagination.

24 August 2008

The Legend of Yma Sumac

Yma Sumac, the five-octave Diva of Exotica, was born Zoila Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo in 1922 in Inchocan, Peru.

Sumac began performing on radio in Peru in her early teens. Bandleader and composer Moises Vivianco discovered her and began promoting her throughout South America. In 1947, Vivianco and Sumac married and moved to New York City. She performed with Vivianco's combo, Conjunto Folklorica Peruano, until she was contracted by Capitol Records in 1950.

Sumac made a series of records on the Capitol Records label mostly singing exotic Hollywood versions of Incan and South American folk songs.

The combination of Sumac's extraordinary voice, her exotic, mysterious looks, and her stage personality made her a great hit for American audiences. During the height of her popularity, she appeared in the films Secret of the Incas and Omar Khayam.

Sumac has remained mostly out of the limelight since the late 1950s, performing intermittently. She did record a complete album, "Miracles," a Rock "tour de force" in 1971, as well as one cut on Hal Wilner's tribute to Disney music, "Stay Awake," in 1991. - from wikipedia



Yma Sumac performs Chuncho


Taita Inti (Virgin of the Sun God) - from The Voice of Xtabay LP












Accla Taqui - The Voice Of Xtabay LP


Ataypura - The Voice Of Xtabay LP


Xtabay - The Voice Of Xtabay LP













Remember - from the Miracles LP circa 1970


Flame Tree - from the Miracles LP circa 1970