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Recording Details
Fuego del Ande

catalog no: T-1169
Reissue of sixth album

A review is available. A copy exists in the Archives in case there are specific questions about it. The Tiki logo is not on the actual artwork.

Pathé Marconi - Monophonic - 1985 France   12" LP

Historical notes
Liner Notes
In FUEGO DEL ANDE, Yma Sumac pays tribute to her heritage, singing traditional and popular songs of both her Incan people and the of all South America.  Yma Sumac's intense feeling for these songs and her unique four-octave range lend brilliant coloration to these authentic folk songs.  And each song seems to welcome her interpretation.

Much of the credit for the dramatic settings these songs enjoy goes to Moisés Vivanco, who created fresh adaptions of and orchestrated the compositions for four electric guitars, electric bass guitar, rhythm guitar, mandolin, and a full latin rhythm section featuring many kinds of native Peruvian drums.  Peruvian-born, his knowledge of native rhythms and instruments is extensive and first-hand.

The album includes such rhythms as the huayno, heard in Dale que Dale, Mi Palomita, and Gallito Ciego.  The rhythm dates from approximately 1000BC and was a popular dance of the Incan people.  Today it is the national dance in many South American countries.  To most North Americans it will sound similar to the "boogie-woogie" rhythm.

Another pervading rhythm is that of the Peruvian polka which is heard in Gallito Caliente and Huachina .  This version of the polka is believed to be native to South America, since it can be traced back in that continent's music for about 400 years.

Among other rhythms heard in the album is the Creole waltz, the underlying rhythm in Flor de Canela, Llora Corazon, and Clamor.  It is to South America what the fox trot is to the United States - the basic dance.  La Pampa ya la Puna is a tondero, an aristocratic, masculine dance (done, at times, with pistol in hand) that was handed down from the Spanish conquistadors to the natives over 200 years ago.  It is basically a waltz, but one with accents on beats to which the North American ears are unaccustomed.

Many of the songs relate interesting folk stories.  Gallito Caliente tells a barnyard version of the eternal triangle, in which a "superman" among fowls creates havoc with the hens.  Callito Ciego tells of a lazy rooster who uses his blind eye as an excuse for making his hens work day and night to support him.  Huachina is a name for a lake about 150 miles south of Lima, Peru.  Legend has it that bathers in the lake are turned into blondes after one swim.  Mi Palomita tells of four "toughs" who run away with a fellow's girl, or "pigeon."  With the help of four hummingbirds he rescues her; but, as in many folk songs of the Andes, the lass is not too willing to return to only one man.  This, by the way, is the only song in the album sung in Quechua, the Incan language.

Flor de Canela symbolizes latin beauty.  The song describes woman as the color of seasoned wheat, with emerald eyes.  Virgenes del Sol is the only selection in the album without lyrics.  Based by Vivanco on earlier Indian rhythms, it is sung in stunning "vocalese" fashion by Yma Sumac.

Tracks
(select song title to see other recordings with it)

      side a

    1. La Molina    (Francisco Ballesteros) - 3:27
    2. Flor de Canela    (Chabuda Granada) - 3:21
    3. Gallito Caliente    (Heraclio Cuentas) - 1:56
    4. La Pampa y la Puna    (Ricardo Walter Stubbs, Carlos Walderrama) - 3:08
    5. Dale que Dale    (Moisés Vivanco) - 3:10
    6. Llora Corazon    (trad., arr. Luis Galves Roncero) - 2:59

      side b

    1. A la Huacachina    (Angel del Valle) - 3:26
    2. La Perla de Chira    (Guillermo Riofrio Morales) - 3:43
    3. Mi Palomita    (trad. arr. Moisés & Carlos Vivanco) - 3:16
    4. Virgenes del Sol    (trad. arr. Jorge Bravo de Rueda, Moisés Vivanco) - 2:51
    5. Gallito Ciego    (Edmundo Zaldirar) - 2:15
    6. Clamor    (Elisiaro Rueda Pinto) - 2:54
    7. total play time (approx): 36:26

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