Customer Reviews

Ultimate Yma Sumac Collection

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

At last: a well-chosen overview of Yma's work at Capitol! (Which covers just about everything except her '70s rock sides, recorded for another label and not widely commercially available.) It's a boon not only to those not familiar with the diva's huge body of work, but also to collectors who have had, in the past, to pick-and-choose from her many specifically-themed albums, to create their own collections of her many different styles in a single package. The remastering is impeccable, and the liner notes/bio surpass anything previously released with her recordings - featuring photos of her from the '50s to the present. (The fairly recent shot of her mugging before a replica of the Capitol Records tower is a hoot!) Much of the shrouded romantic mystery of the famed Sun Virgin has been replaced by factual, but no less intriguing, biographical and professional information. Definitely a must-have for the Yma novitiate, and a nicely rounded-out addition for the true enthisiast. (No more dragging out all those LPs and CDs to find one or two definitive numbers!) Thanks, EMI!

I was first turned on to Yma Sumac when a friend played my "Mambo". I was hooked, it's still one of my favorite albums. When my girlfriend got me this for Valentine's day it opened up a whole new level of appreciation for Sumac's talent. The vocal gymnastics (not to mention the absolutely unique style of the songs) on this disk surpassed everything I had heard her do before. If you're curious, this is a great one to get!

I'm so glad Capitol finally put out a best of package featuring Madam Sumac's tremendous voice. When I've played her in the past, her creations have intimidated some and impressed others, so it's nice to have a career overview to let people hear the voice in various settings.

I love this recording! Wow!!!! I have been singing for over thirty years and this is the first woman I have EVER heard who can sing both higher AND lower than me! "Chunco" is unbelievable! Her singing, coupled with the brilliant music of Vivanco, makes her recordings an essential part of any serious musician's collection. Folks, don't wait, don't think, just buy this woman's music! I will say that I enjoy her voice more on the earlier music, as they seem to be more fitted to her big, vibrant, exotic, Incan priestess vocal pyrotechnics. I find myself just listening over and over - she is truly amazing, and is in a class head and shoulders above all other coloraturas, because of the sheer power she has in the entirety of her range.

Pity Yma Sumac. Pity her recorded legacy. Most of all, pity her fans, because Capitol Records is bent on presenting her recordings to her public in the worst possible light. This amounts to a great disrespect towards a woman who has been a Capitol mainstay for half a century, and whose Capitol recordings have never been out of the catalog during that time.

This release is a shoddy mess. I have no qualms with the repertoire selection. I do, however, object to Capitol's claim that some of this material is previously unreleased. In Tijuana maybe, but most definitely not in the United States. Those selections have been on CD before on a couple of British releases. They were available here as imports. So what gives?

I also object to Capitol's obvious malice when they boast the first stereo releases of four tracks from the Fuego Del Ande LP. When this LP was issued on CD by The Right Stuff (Capitol again!), I was appalled to discover that it had been mastered in mono, when a stereo version was available. Now Capitol has gone back to the original stereo, but they might as well have left us with the mono versions, because the remastering is pathetically inadequate, especially on the Virgenes Del Sol track, which is simply unlistenable.

Capitol is also on a budget when it comes to art work and proof readers. The cover of this release is a badly reproduced copy of Madame Sumac's Inca Taqui ten-incher. More recent, campier photographs of Madame appear inside the accompanying booklet. The picture of Madame in the red hat, for instance, is pure kitsch. Why it wasn't used for the cover escapes my reasoning, when Madame is the epitome of the kitschy and the bizarre. The booklet, though it perpetuates the Sumac myth (enough already, Alan!) is well annotated and designed. It contains, however, several misspellings. The song listings on the back of the CD also show Negrito Filomeno misspelled as Filomino.

We have had it. We want Capitol's treatment of Yma Sumac to change. We demand that all their Yma Sumac product be recalled at once. We demand that they start again from scratch and give us Madame Sumac in new, state-of-the-art remasterings showcasing the best sound possible and new art work. We demand a new stereo remastering of Fuego Del Ande, a listenable one this time. We also demand that the TRULY unreleased material in their vaults finally see the light. All those alternate takes and different versions that we know exist need to be shared with her public. Madame is unique in the history of recorded sound. She stands alone and unmatched. If Capitol can do right by Sinatra and Cole, they can also pull out all the stops for Yma Sumac. And where, oh where, are the Capitol sessions of The Andrews Sisters and Marlene Dietrich? I suggest that they start working on bringing back to CD the discographies of these artists, who, in their own way, were every bit as original and unrivaled as Madame Sumac.

A warning to Capitol: Enough is enough!

We took an extraordinary trip to Peru last year, and I did a great deal of reading and other research about that complex and fascinating country. I knew a tiny bit about Yma Sumac through "The New York Times Crossword Puzzle", of course; all three of those letters (and sometimes all eight) are worth their weight in gold to constructors in a tight spot.

By chance, I learned that Sumac was from Peru, and was lucky enough to find a copy of this CD. Her voice was amazing -- an extraordinarily wide vocal range of more than four octaves, from a low baritone to above the range of an ordinary soprano. Both low and high extremes can be heard on this album in "Chuncho" (The Forest Creatures) (1999 Digital Remaster), and the song can also be down loaded alone as an MP3.

This collection has excellent fidelity, and many of the songs have deep roots in Peru and especially in the Andes. It is a great introduction to the "Peruvian Songbird", who died today.

Robert C. Ross 2008

I enjoy Yma Sumac - my mother used to tell me stories when I was a kid about how a lot of people didn't believe that Yma Sumac's voice was real, that it must be faked somehow. But the reality is, this woman had a set of pipes that will knock your socks off.

This collection of songs takes a little stroll through some of Sumac's best work, but doesn't quite hit all of the high points. For example, "Gopher," made famous by films and television commercials, is not a part of this collection, which is disappointing. However, it's a good, broad sampling of her work, showing her range of style and talent.

Not quite as good as I had hoped. The songs Bo Mambo, Babalu, and Xtabay (Lure Of The Unknown Love) are catchy and bear repeated listenings, but most of the rest of it suffers from overly dramatic and dated arrangements that, frankly, make me cringe when I listen to them.

You gotta love her voice, though. Geez. Tweets like a bird and growls like a panther.

One of the most unique voices of the century sings an exquisite variety of exotic songs.

Although Ms. Sumac could sing in 4 octives, her material ran from pretty exotic and lush to absolutely dreadful. Who cares?? In some ways she was the "Ed Wood" of the music world, and so over-the-edge, you could hardly believe it. I remember when she was popular and yes, we really did take her totally seriously. But let's face it, we never heard anything like her... and she was incredibly entertaining. This colllection will amaze, delight and completely blow you away. It's like nothing else in popular music you have ever heard.

For an instrumental version of this type of wonderful ultra lounge music, may I suggest the CD called "Sacred Rites" by Elisabeth Waldo. It is one CD made from her best 2 vinyl albums of the late 1950s. Fantastic!