Yma Sumac

Yma Sumac - "Miracles" (1972) - London Records

Hello Friends,

Our favorite Peruvian princess with a five octave vocal range is on the Vinyl in the Valley turntable tonight!

Yma Sumac is one of the legends of the 50's Exotica movement.  Contrary to popular belief, "Yma Sumac" was NOT born "Amy Camus" in Brooklyn, NY.  From what we can tell, however, she was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo in Callao, Peru in 1922 and she may or may not have been a distant descendant of the last Incan emperor, Atahualpa.   

In any event, Yma Sumac's voice was unlike any other and she had a string of albums in the 50's that are essentials in the Exotica pantheon.  Albums like "Voice of the Xtabay" (1950), "Flahooley" (1951), "Legend of the Sun Virgin" (1952), "Mambo!" (1954) and "Fuego del Ande" (1959) helped defined the genre and sounded unlike anything else at the time-- or ever since!  From her baritone growls to her higher-than-normal soprano trills, she's really needs to be heard to be believed!

Miracles is Sumac's foray into rock & roll music.  Produced and arranged by none other than Les Baxter, the results are definitely weird and cheesey-- but in the best possible way.  Sumac's music of the 1950's was unlike anything anyone heard before-- give her an utempo, rock & roll backing band and that statement doubles in meaning!     

There's a very proggy feel to this record.  Her voice sounding more like something coming out of Rick Wakeman's early synthesizer rather than a South American woman's vocal chords! In fact, with all its strange and other-worldly sounds, lyrics and experimental (sometimes outlandish) arrangements, you can make the argument that Exotica was to lounge music as Prog Rock was to rock & roll.   

Thanks to Danny & Ross for this record!

RATING: 4.5 Descendants of Atahualpa out of 5

The Bax is Back

Les Baxter and His Orchestra & Chorus - "Kaleidoscope" (1955) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

We've got some early Les Baxter ("The Bax") on the turntable tonight!  The sublime twelve instrumental tracks on Kaleidoscope pre-dates the really groundbreaking Exotica stuff that would comprise Baxter's LP's of the late 50's/early 60's. 

But like a morning mist on a Tahitian beach, beneath the melodies of these 12 tracks you can hear faint whispers of more exotic instruments, jungle rhythms, wordless choruses and other-worldly sonic experiments! 

Kind of hate the shitty LP cover, though. Looks like a Christmas decoration my grandmother threw out!

RATING: 3.5 Aprils in Portugal out of 5

Finger Pickin' Good

Les Baxter's "Wild Guitars" (1959) - Capitol Records

Ole Friends,

Tonight we're listening to another fun entry in the Les Baxter Capitol Records library.

Tiki tunes with a Latin and Flamenco flair featuring a trio of classical guitarists-- Nestor Amaral, Joe Carioca and Pepe Gamboa.  Andres Segovia this ain't!

From the opening frenzy of Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance", these tracks contains Baxter's exotic percussion and choral accompaniments accented by the sounds of rhythmic six strings.  The standard, "My Buddy" is disguised as a feverish samba. The songs "Mandolino", "Cubana Mulatta" and "Cabayo" are Baxter originals and sound like something you might hear upon entering some South American cantina in the late 1950's.

The album closes with some excellent finger-picking on the speedy "Tico Tico"-- a song composed by Brazilian composer, Zequinha de Abreu in 1917 and made famous not only for its numerous versions but for the fact the Grateful Dead would often play in during their tuning jams between songs.  I'll take the Les Baxter version any day!

RATING: 4 Brazilian Slave Songs out of 5 

The Heart of Darkness

Les Baxter - "Les Baxter's African Jazz" (1959) - Capitol Records

Jambo Friends,

We're in store for a sonic tiki trip to the dark continent tonight and there's no better tour guide than Les Baxter.  So brush up on your swahili, put on your safari hats and let's go!

To quote the liner notes from this fantastic LP, "Africa still echoes with the primitive beat.  But the continent is no longer dark.  For ancient Africa has collided with the twentieth century and the result is a flamboyant explosion."  Hmm.

The titles to some of these songs is worth the price of admission alone: "Congo Train", "Elephant Trail", "Banana Boy", "Mombasa After Midnight", "Walkin' Watusi", "Ostrich Hunt", "Cairo Bazaar", "Jungalero" & "Balinese Bongos".  Between the cover art and these song titles, how could you see this record in 1959 and NOT buy it???

The album is all instrumental with all selections composed by Baxter.  There's some jazzy trombone and tenor sax playing, but what stands out are the exotic percussion sounds and sound effects, punctuated by manic bongos, floating vibraphones and tiptoeing marimbas.  (Not to mention some cool-sounding pre-surf rock guitar work on "Cairo Bazaar"!)

There's pretty much nothing not to love about this album... "a thrilling adventure in exotic sound!"

RATING: 4.5 Shrunken Heads out of 5

Poking the Starfish

Les Baxter's Jewels of the Sea

As the LP Cover says, "Titillating Orchestrations for Listening and Loving"... well I for one AM titillated after these deep sea adventures of Mr. Baxter's.

The music here is lush and very cinematic.  Its like a soundtrack for a movie that doesn't exist! 

Jewels of the Sea stars Steve McQueen as "Decker" and Ernest Borgnine as his bumbling sidekick, "Spence".  Its the tale of two lovelorn sailors on leave on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu.  One night, after breaking up a fight at the local cantina, these two meet a beautiful woman wading in the water.  As they approach her, a thick, mysterious fog rolls in and when it clears, the woman is gone.  Thinking her drowned, Decker dives in tries to save her and he too is pulled down by the tide.  What he sees next, he can't believe!  Is he hallucinating from a blow to the head that he received in the bar fight? Or, is the woman a mermaid who tells him that the military's presence is disturbing their otherwise tranquil underwater kingdom?            

Sounds like something I'd get in line for! 

Also, I'm not sure if the girl on the cover is a mermaid or just a regular girl who can still look sexy while holding her breath?  Though I guess it really doesn't matter!

RATING: 3.5 sea monkeys out of a possible 5