Every gay man
adores at least one diva. Of course,
that isn't a fact.
However, should the diva ever
take a look around in order to find out what her
audience is like, then she would find that it
consists of a much higher percentage of gays than
the audience of average musical artists. Why might
that be? One possible explanation: Divas are of
slightly odd apparition, both in behaviour as well
as in their looks. Something doesn't seem quite
right about them. Occasionally, it makes you laugh.
It's just like, you know, similar to the phenomenon
when you feel a little bit beside yourself.
Because of its political
implications, I hesitate to use the word "queer"
but it is an expression explaining my personal
condition in regard to the post-postmodern age (an
age which I simply describe as hyperinformatism).
Another explanation why gays
might love all those divas is - and I just can't
stand this simplification anymore - that
they are "camp". This is an expression which
is extremely difficult to translate into German, by
the way. These days, the German gays are also
familiar with the term "camp" and are using it like
so many anglicisms, although I'm wondering whether
they are aware of all the subtleties and nuances
involved. Well, I mean I hope that the word "camp"
implies some subtleties and nuances. I even
read the word in an article by Diedrich
Diederichsen, one of the leading German experts on
pop culture theory. Susan Sontag wrote a well-known
essay regarding the subject, brilliant as usual. But
from her point and time of view, she described
several items as "camp" which definitely
aren't camp anymore.
The question is not
necessarily whether the gay condition should
be summarized at all (a homosexual subcultural
identity has sprung into existence only during the
last 200 years. Before that, there were "homosexual"
acts but those were simply a form of behaviour). If
the gay condition could be summarized, it
would definitely not be "camp". And it would
not be that really all gays are into Barbra
Streisand.
Not yet.
*
However, there was - or is -
a form of iconism which definitely is of
specifically gay nature. German writer and singer
Max Goldt is probably unknown to most people from
abroad. His humour doesn't work when you try to
translate his texts into other languages. Still, he
has once described homosexuality as "the act
of worshipping of dumb old women"
(roughly translated). Since he is gay, the
heterosexual reader should take it for granted that
he knows what he's talking about. Meanwhile however,
he has become an object of gay idolisation himself
which makes his comment even more absurd
(thankfully).
Well let's see - who's been
assigned to our away team so far? There are Ethel
Merman, Madonna, Cher, Barbra Streisand, Julie
Andrews, Shirley Bassey, Eartha Kitt, Dionne
Warwick, Liza Minelli, her mother Judy Garland,
Donna Summer, Dolly Parton, Miss Piggy, the Golden
Girls, Lucille Ball, Dusty Springfield, Aretha
Franklin, The Carpenters, Marlene Dietrich, Annie
Lennox, Gladys Knight (with pips), Gloria Gaynor
(she'll survive), Diana Ross, Linda Ronstadt, Nancy
Sinatra, Patti Labelle, Doris Day, Joan Collins (she
sang "Imagine"), Freddie Mercury (yes, there
are a few good men), Elton John, the Pet Shop Boys
and Grace Jones. Funny enough though, Nico doesn't
count, as well as Suzanne Vega or Tina Turner.
However, Kate Bush counts. Don't ask me. And
everyone singing a Bacharach tune counts as well, of
course. And Bowie doesn't count as well. The list of
my English translation does not include global
celebrities unknown to America, though I have added
several classics unknown to Germans.
Still, so far, I went on and
on listing regular gay standards of adoration.
There is something more to it
than this. In contrast to this gay mainstream,
many gays emphasizing on their individuality set
themselves apart from the homosexual cliché. So they
get into the so-called hardcore iconism.
Requiring a darker and more
colourful shade to their personality and taste,
these gays focus on more interesting or special or
unknown subjects which should not be forgotten (at
least, from their point of view). It's almost like "This
is my reverance and nobody elses!" - and if
you meet somebody else with the same reverance then
it's a welcome friend, a rare kindred spirit. With
him or her, you can exchange your valuable insights
on this serious matter - it's either Meredith Monk
or Juliette Greco or Marianne Faithfull, Laurie
Anderson, Diamanda Galas, the Einstürzende
Neubauten, Caetano Villoso or my latest serious idol
- Lila Downs.
Not all of these hardcore
idols are a totally serious matter. An
unintentional comical twist about some of those
hardcore icons has its own specific charm. One day,
I might address the matter of Luixy Toledo or Mary
Schneider or The Shaggs - but not today ...
*
There is a Peruvian singer
who has been an important hardcore icon of mine.
Maybe. Or maybe, there is a woman from Brooklyn who
has been that hardcore icon.
I have been in serious doubt
of reality ever since I was thirteen years old -
when the Aliens didn't come to abduct me. I had
wished for it, at the time. But the Aliens only
abducted American children and never bothered with
Germany. In the last decades, it has become evident
that the development of culture and history is
culminating in a puddle of absurdities. It might
even be that I'm only imagining all this.
It had all started
on 26th of October 1990. On that day, I returned
from my vacation in San Francisco and stopped for a
short visit at my neighbor's place. He was in the
middle of going crazy over a record which he had
bought a few days before.
The music I heard was an
amazing experience. I was not into mambo music but
these sounds got me into their groove. Furthermore,
the singer was totally unbelievable. She reminded me
a bit of Nina Hagen (although it is actually just
the other way around - Nina Hagen occasionally
sounds like her), but she had very operatic elements
as well and such an astonishing vocal range!
I was told by my neighbors
that she was a real Inca princess who had started
singing when she was thirteen. In the fifties, she
had sung in crowded concert halls and major dance
halls - but nowadays, nobody knew her anymore.
That's what I was told - plus her name: YMA SUMAC.
That specific longplayer had
the title "MAMBO". With some vaguely pleasant
sensations but also with some inner distance, I
listened in and watched the wild dances of my
neighbors and my roommates, finally I felt the urge
to get down to it. I think I must have
thought "oh well". After all, it had only been a few
months since my actual Coming Out.
One month later, I was rather
convinced that I was one of the biggest fans of hers
in the entire world (I was also thinking "How good
it is that almost no one knows about her" ... ). But
during my visit to the "Warm Winter `90"
when gay youth groups from all over Germany met in
Berlin, I was informed by a sweet Peruvian boy
living in Heidelberg called Ariel who was
familiar with her that she still lives in Peru and
occasionally performs at smaller private events.
After this, an escalation of
situations unfolded:
On an old record by the
German new wave band "Palais Schaumburg" from the
year 1983, I surprisingly discovered two little
samples from the "MAMBO" LP. While in Berlin again
in Summer 1991, I mentioned the artist to a student
of music who said "I know of her". Before
realizing what he had said, I had almost completed
explaining who she was. The music student said "I
know of her. She's this American coloratura singer
called Amy Camus from Brooklyn who just turned the
letters of her name around and started to sing in
the Peruvian language because she was so bad at
the Opera".
This was my first encounter
with the Amy
Camus rumour -
in a somewhat distorted and grotesque version than
the original malinformation. An indefinite mass of
incredible accounts began to follow during the next
weeks and months:
It seems that, during the
50's, her voice was praised to the highest - being
an absolute miracle. The scale of her register
extended to an all out of four and half
octaves. According to later remarks by herself, it
was even five octaves. And even in 1991, as the
Peruvian Inca Icon was supposedly approaching an age
of 70 or so, she could range between three octaves
(which is much anyway for any singer). In Hollywood,
she recorded many mysterious folklore records of
different qualities: some of it was obscure and dark
anthropological music like the fifth album she
recorded for Capitol Records, the brilliant yet
weird "JIVARO" album. Other recordings have the
ethnological authenticity of a Tarzan movie
soundtrack, like "LEGEND OF THE SUN VIRGIN" or
"VOICE OF XTABAY" (her first two albums for Capital
Records). But her voice flew like a Condor over the
sort of classical orchestrations by the
imperturbably corny yet smashingly brilliant
arranger and composer Les Baxter (though the
composer of the music was mostly Moises Vivanco,
Miss Sumacs husband). Her repertoire included even
rock music as on "MIRACLES", her last real
longplayer recorded in 1971, but she is most famous
for her "MAMBO" album of 1955 when she was as
brilliant as never before and never again. Those
mambos are probably the perfect antidote against all
those samba bores from South America that you
probably heard a thousand times (I
think I read this last sentence somewhere else
but I forgot where - but then again, I think, it
was that marvellous SPEX article by Reinhard
Krause).
*
The information came bit by bit (back in 1991,
reliable or unreliable sources as the Internet were
unknown):
In the 50's and in the 60's,
she was a world-famous star, giving concerts even in
Moscow, but it seemed now that her fame had
dissolved. She seemed to have disappeared, no longer
appearing in public, no longer giving concerts.
Suddenly and strange enough, there was a German
documentary film on TV about her. Amazed, me and my
neighbors and roommates tuned in and were even more
stunned by the almost total absence of Yma Sumac
from this film about her (except for some short old
footage and many pictures and many interviews with
some people who once had something to do with her).
The film wanders in the dark, musing about Yma Sumac
who refused to appear in it (also preventing
interviews with her son and her divorced husband,
her congenial partner and composer Moises Vivanco).
It seemed at that time that Yma Sumac tried to keep
the utmost control over any detail concerning her
legendary life. Everybody spreading details, whether
false or accurate, had to expect being sued by her.
When her first Capitol
Records album appeared, this record company spread
the tale that she was indeed a real Inca princess
from a small village in the Andes - an effort of
exotica which was designed to increase sales
figures.
Another detail that this
barely significant film let me know about was the
above-mentioned fact that, these days, a large
portion of her fandom consists of Gays - I
felt deeply touched for this compliment. Aside from
that, the film could not provide clarity or proof
who or what Yma Sumac really is. Inca princess or
Brooklyn girl, she has her star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame (as does Godzilla) . But it seemed that
she was concerned her myth could be deconstructed
and the lie of a lifetime could be unveiled - maybe
there was no Yma Sumac after all.
Two weeks later, my doubt of
coherence of this world was confirmed. My neighbor
gave me a telephone call from Berlin in the middle
of going crazy over the following information. On
28th of October 1991 - almost precisely one year
after my first encounter with her music - Yma Sumac
would give a concert in the "Theater des Westens"
(Theatre of the West) in Berlin, this being her only
concert in Germany during her present world tour.
*
Berlin was the first station of her world tour. Only
she herself undertook that journey, along with two
costumes and three Inca statuettes. Still, she
appeared on the stage with six German musicians with
whom she had rehearsed only for a short time, and
they would have looked and felt better in a jazz
hall (though heading this band was the famous piano
player Kai Rautenberg who had also once accompanied
Hildegarde Neff or Brigitte Mira, another German
icon )... Three fourths of the audience consisted of
the so-called "men with earrings" or the "little
boys" as Yma likes to call her present-day main
group of fans. This would be a great moment of
general celebration far away from my HARDCORE
ICONISM. Apparently, she was on the verge of an
enormous comeback.
This concert in the "Theater
des Westens" turned out to be one of the most
iconistic events of this decade as the following
happened: An emotion stirred me deeply, I felt
touched and moved in a cosmic sense - I saw
her (and it was different at that moment already
from your usual soft core iconism). She was alive,
she was a living person who really sang like on
those records. It was no longer an unbelievable
dream. It was three octaves, definitely, at that
night. Occasionally, there was the effort of the
fledging voice to reach four and a half, not
entirely successful ...
After an instrumental version
of the song "EARTH QUAKE", she, visiting
Germany again after thirty years, entered the stage
in a blue-golden costume and sang "ATAYPURA", one of
her most legendary songs from her very first Capitol
Records album "THE VOICE OF XTABAY". It was this
moment that I felt touched. The audience was
terribly excited and very grateful, with everybody
cheering jubilantly. After the first song, with
wonderful self-irony, she remarked that she was
happy to be back in Germany again after 2000 years.
A few unfamiliar songs (new compositions by
herself?) and "MOSCOW NIGHTS" followed. Then came
the song "MONTANA", a Peruvian lullaby song which is
also famous to her fans, and the audience applauded
wildly. Everbody was overwhelmed. The next song "LA
MOLINA" was an even bigger success. The audience did
not want to let her go to the intermission, she had
to give an encore (a repetition of "LA MOLINA") even
before the second part of the show .
The second part of the
concert began with several confusions. Firstly, the
musicians played an instrumental version of the
"MALAMBO N° 1" and did not do too well. Secondly,
Yma Sumac arrived on the stage too late for the next
piece "SURAY SURITA", as if she had missed her
entry. It was the beginning of the end ...
In terms of her voice, she
was much more determined and giving during this
second part of the concert. She did a lot with her
deep "Baoo-aoo-aooa-ooa-ah-ah" roll, still
trying for the fourth octave. She knew that she was
beyond her highest times, but she was still trying
to get as high as possible. For the first time in my
life, I felt struck by the real sensation of
tragedy. Aside from that, she was just as good as on
her old records, according to the statement of an
elderly gentleman in the lobby whom we had met
during the intermission, a fan of hers ever since
her great days. The sensation of time intersections
was amazing to me and my neighbors and roommates who
were all here with me at this concert. We were all
there together.
In the second part, the
beautiful operatic aria "TU'CA NUN CHIAGNE!" and the
smashing tune "CELEBRATE LIFE" were totally
convincing. During the latter, she had to stop at
the beginning to show the orchestra how they should
do the rhythm (this was unprofessional behaviour,
but more on her part than on the part of the
musicians). It was all becoming rather strange
...
The end came suddenly with
many people booing. So far, they had been patient.
Yma told the audience that she wanted to sing some
songs of the "MAMBO" record, but either she could
not get started or the musicians had not made
themselves familiar enough with these tunes. And all
that Jazz. She broke off the concert
unexpectedly although, in her heart, she wanted to
continue.
She told us about the
terrible car accident during which she had broken
her arms and leg. That it was still painful. And
that the terrible weather in Germany had affected
her voice. And that this was the reason why she and
the musicians had not had enough time to rehearse.
That the musicians had already left. It all sounded
as much as South America as "One Hundred
Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
which continuously presents the reader with these
kinds of stories. She promised to repeat her concert
on Monday (or rather to carry it out in actuality),
and that then, everything would be perfect.
Afterwards, the director of the "Theater des
Westens" decided to cancel this concert. His
explanation was he wanted to prevent an almost
pre-programmed scandal.
It was fitting for the
legend, though. Very much appropriate for the myth
of Yma Sumac. Another secret about which one could
wonder. She remained relevant. Right after
the show, I saw her leaving at the backdoor exit,
entering a Mercedes. While she left, she was
surrounded by her most loyal fans and friends, some
of them were my neighbors and my roommates,
everybody was trying to give her positive
vibrations. She looked very intimidated and very
exhausted. At that moment, I was not far away
from her, and I saw her as a real person at last.
*
After the concert, she
remained in Germany and appeared in two television
programs. During the dubious "Schmidt Show" (not to
be confused with the "Harald Schmidt Show" but a
rather illustrous "gay" TV program from Hamburgs
famous Schmidt theatre), she broke off her
performance - a stunning sight once again for the
television viewer. This time, she was in anger,
because somebody in the audience had dared to laugh
about her. The other TV program "Boulevard bei Bio"
went without any catastrophies. It was during this
interview that she told German talkmaster Alfred
Biolek (another gay celebrity in the community) her
voice ranges through five octaves. Afterwards, she
sang "MONTANA", a very slow, accentuated and
operatic performance, still touching.
These events did not
discourage her to continue. The legend would not end
this way. The star of one of the most obscurest
divas ever was not about to go down. She recorded a
single called "MAMBO CONFUSION" though distribution
of that record was prohibited and the pressed CDs
went back to the record company immediately after
the release. The unusual reason for this: Miss Sumac
had used instrumentations and vocal samplings from
her old song "CHICKEN TALK" but she did not have and
could not obtain the rights for the song (but at least, I was able to buy the
"brandnew Yma Sumac record" - a thrill
that so many other people have experienced for
years and decades before, a thrill that was
surely often followed by bewilderment caused by
the actual experience of listening).
A longplayer album called "MAMBO CONFUSION" was also
available in shops for a short time, or so it is
said. Supposedly, there was no new material on it
except for the disco song just mentioned. It seems
to be a miracle that there are actual people who own
this CD single, an extremely rare gem. Maybe even I
am just an illusion. But if so, could anybody still
sue me?
*
But after this smaller
debacle, Yma Sumac suddenly and unexpectedly came
back for me on the 22nd of May 1992 into the concert
hall "Meistersingerhalle" in Nuremberg. One
of her final concerts in Germany.
On this evening, she sang for
an audience of 120 people in the smaller second hall
of this location. Despite another heavy cold which
was very real (every listener had to notice), she
was almost able to reach the vocal height of former
times. Other listeners around me complained between
songs that ... "that she was sleep-drugged,
she was tremolating , her voice was very heavy and
that she had forgotten some lyrics and that she
was croaking false notes ..."
I could not continue to
listen to these slanderous and calumnious voices ...
They were too painful. On the stage, I saw a human
being, a real woman, and in her voice, the sensitive
listeners in the audience sensed the echo of the
experience and of the emotion of a whole lifetime.
One could feel a whole life here within this voice,
and it seemed only natural that she sounded
different than in former times. Yma had more depth,
more authenticity than ever. To counter here with a
demand for perfection is a misguided judgement - no,
this was the time when absolute HARDCORE ICONISM was
in demand. All in all, the ending went better than
in Berlin.
According to rumour
however, her managers tried to make a lot of money
with this tour. It is said that she had not been
very rich, actually she may have even been rather
poor, and she must have dreamed of feeling the fame
and glamour of lost times around herself again. That
is probably why she had signed the contract for this
concert tour to return to glory and success. But
this contract resulted in the fact that the managers
received a main portion of the proceeds.
Since this tour was actually
disastrous, the managers would deal with her in a
different manner, not paying anymore for hotel rooms
or a return flight. Even if she had wanted to, she
did not have the money for a flight. In summer 1992,
it was reported that she was trying to find cheap
accomodation in Berlin by means of procurement
services because she wanted to stay in Germany. This
rumour was rather heavy, and it was one of the last
rumours I heard. She disappeared from newspapers and
the yellow press without notice. For a long time, no
one in Germany heard about her.
Years later I was
told that she lives either in America again or in
Peru again or in Spain. As if it mattered. It
had always been a point that the totally different
kinds of rumours caused some part of the special
fascination of Yma Sumac. Reality, on the
other hand, has a confusing and sobering effect to
the same extent. And even hardcore iconism
might fade away ... So it must be true
that she sang at the International Jazz Festival in
Montreal in 1997. Also, the latest compact discs
published are no rumour, finally containing rare
tracks (early works and other mixes of known songs
as well as previously unreleased material), like the
compilation "Virgenes del Sol". One of the last
records brought out was the longplayer "YMA
ROCKS!" (mainly a relaunch of "MIRACLES", but
re-mastered and with two additional previously
unreleased titles which had been produced in 1971 as
well). One can get this CD solely over the Internet,
though, at this Yma Sumac website: sunvirgin.com
(which is not the official Yma Sumac homepage as I
have been recently informed - the latter will be
mentioned at the end of this article).
Since I have been living in
Berlin for many years now, I no longer have any
neighbors going crazy (as far as Yma Sumac is
concerned). But I regularly receive hot rumours and
even information by telephone from my former
neighbor. Recently he went , well ... not crazy. He
went into a bookshop and bought a book.
One day after his telephone
call, I bought the same book called "apropos Yma
Sumac" by the German publishing company Neue
Kritik. It has several delightful essays and
texts which even contain information, as well as a
biographical overview and a selection of beautiful
photographs. Still, it would be presumptuous to call
this book a biography. The fantastic essay of
Anna-Bianca Krause unfolds in a quite similar way as
the article which is presently coming to its
conclusion right here as you read it. But on the
other hand, it is really not that surprising
that she was also at the '91 Berlin concert (my,
even Ades Zabel had been there, the drag queen
superstar of Berlin) Aside from that, the main
portions of this tract had been created
before/indepently of the opulent ramifications by
Anna-Bianca Krause (any
relations to Reinhard Krause who wrote the
splendid article on Miss Sumac together with an
interview in the SPEX music magazine in '91?).
The book renewed the senses, like Venice renewed the
senses of doomed Gustav von Aschenbach for the last
time. No, hardcore iconism never dies,
but the devoted iconist must fail his passion,
eventually, as time goes by.
*
Yma Sumac has
experienced great days and created sensational
moments, that much is an everlasting diamond. Her
task, her mission - she really said this once - was
to bring people a little bit of happiness in these
chaotic, crazy and dark times. She has succeeded in
doing this and is even doing so in the present.
Although the happiness
which she brings is often not the one which she
had intended.
THE END
*
Additional remarks, beginning
from October 6th 2005:
2005-10-06:
Until now, the last
sentence of this complex article has been: "Although
the happiness which she brings is often not the one
which she had intended." This was seen as a let
down by many readers and by my former
neighbor as well. They felt rather disappointed by
this ending. I have been asked why I would become so
vague in my final attitudes concerning Yma Sumac,
raising the question whether I am still a devoted
hardore iconist or not.
I realize that I must go far
back in order to deal with this question, almost as
far as the existing part of this article, possibly
even further. During the following days, weeks and
months, I will try to articulate this present state
of devotion. While not experiencing any further
climax, hardcore iconism has not faded away - that
much is certain.
Therefore, the final
sentences of this article presently read as follows: