Yma Sumac; Peruvian singer became a sensation; at 86

Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo, better known as Yma Sumac, had a stunning vocal range. (ap file)

LOS ANGELES - Yma Sumac, the Peruvian-born singer whose spectacular multi-octave vocal range and exotic persona made her an international sensation in the 1950s, has died. She was 86.

Ms. Sumac, who was diagnosed with colon cancer in February, died Saturday in an assisted living site in Los Angeles, said Damon Devine, a close friend.

Bursting onto the US music scene after signing with Capitol Records in 1950, Ms. Sumac was known as the "Nightingale of the Andes," the "Peruvian Songbird" and a "singing marvel" with what she called a five-octave voice.

"She is five singers in one," boasted Moises Vivanco, her composer-arranger husband, in a 1951 interview with the Associated Press. "Never in 2,000 years has there been another voice like hers."

After Ms. Sumac performed in Los Angeles with a company of dancers, drummers, and musicians in 1955, a Los Angeles Times writer observed: "She warbles like a bird in the uppermost regions, hoots like an owl in the lowest registers, produces bell-like coloratura passages one minute, and exotic, dusky contralto tones the next."

Ms. Sumac's first album for Capitol, "Voice of the Xtabay," soared to the top of the LP charts. A handful of other albums followed during the 1950s.

With her exotic beauty, elaborate costumes, and singing voice that could imitate the cries of birds and wild animals, the woman who claimed to be a descendant of an ancient Incan emperor offered Eisenhower-era audiences something unique.

During her 1950s heyday, Ms. Sumac sang at the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, and Royal Albert Hall. She reportedly made $25,000 a week in Las Vegas. She was featured in the 1951 Broadway musical "Flahooley" and appeared in the films "Secret of the Incas" in 1954 and "Omar Khayyam" in 1957.

Although details of her birth date and early life vary widely, Devine said Ms. Sumac was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo in Cajamarca, Peru, in 1922.

She was said to have begun singing when she was about 9.

After joining Vivanco's large group of native singers, dancers, and musicians, she made her radio debut in 1942; she and Vivanco were married the same year.

After making her name as a solo artist, Ms. Sumac toured around the world for several years in the 1960s, but her popularity in the United States had waned by then.

"She's a very eccentric woman," Devine told the Los Angeles Times before Ms. Sumac's death. "Her whole career and life is based on her mystery."