The Quintessence

Some superstars travel at light speed into obscurity. Peruvian singer Yma Sumac died as recently as 2008, aged 86. Her awesome vocal register (four-and-a-half octaves, possibly more), striking looks, stage presence and sheer novelty value helped her to achieve mega-fame in the US, where she settled. She toured Europe, Russia and East Asia to great acclaim, played at the Carnegie and Albert halls, did New York's Roxy Theater with Danny Kaye, made films with Charlton Heston and Cornel Wilde, and was sampled by the Black Eyed Peas. Akin to Piaf, Holiday, or at the very least Miranda, she's barely mentioned these days. Associated with so-called ‘exotica’ she was a leading figure in the mambo craze of the 40s and 50s.

This three-CD box contains six albums from 1950-59, her peak years, and gives us a fill of what Sumac was capable of: vaulting coloratura soprano (think the Queen of the Night from The Magic Flute on ayahuasca); wildly freeform remakes of Peruvian/Andean folk songs; chintzy period pop; and filmic chants. While the sound is very much of its time, the shimmying mambos remain inflectious, and that insane range is not only for stunts – Sumac uses it to haunting effect on the tracks from Legend of the Jivaro (1957) and taps both the tender and tormented strains of her country's indigenous heritage – she claimed to be a descendant of Atahualpa – on songs like ‘K'arawi (Planting Song)’ and ‘Chuncho (The Forest Creatures)’ from 1953's Inca Taqui.