Somebody recommended her album Mambo! on another thread...but I had to give it a listen for myself. I'm blown away by her vocal range. I'm not sure exactly what her octave range is, but it has to be at least a 5 octave...it's beautiful. I love when she yells "HEY!" or "HYUH!" in the middle of songs because her vocals are so deep that she sounds like a man at times. Like on the song "Goomba Boomba", her vocals go from a deep Louis Armstrong-like pitch to a high glass shattering pitch. The song "Bo Mambo" is my favorite of the whole album....I fell in love with that song after the first listen. I swear I feel like an honorary Latina every time I listen to this album. This is the only album I own by her, but I gonna listen to Voice of the Xtabay next and just work my way through her discography.I was reading where there used to be a rumor going around that she wasn't really the Inca Princess from Peru that she claimed to be, but was really a Jewish housewife from Brooklyn named Amy Camus (her name backwards). Her bandmates really made that story up for fun, but a lot people still aren't sure if she was really a princess. That might've been thrown in there for glamour. Anyway, I had been meaning to get some classic Latin music in my collection, and this was a perfect way to start.

typo
[Edited 4/6/05 7:27am]

amazing range! I found about her after reading that her album "Voice of the Xtabay" was one of Miles Davis/Weather Report Saxophonist Wayne Shorter's favorite albums...




...

She does have an amazing voice and truly stunning range. Her songs are a kick, and all the mythos around her "discovery" and ancestry are the stuff of (exaggerated) legend.

When interviewed over the years, Tom Waits occasionally mentioned her as an influence . .that's the first I ever heard of her.

But my first time actually hearing her sing was on the odd late-80s album 'Stay Awake' that featured a wide range of people doing covers of vintage Disney music. She did a really beautiful, aria-like take on Sleeping Beauty's 'I Wonder'--minus her usual wildness. I just checked Amazon, and the album is still in print (though for some reason, the posted track listing is entirely incorrect and omits over half of the songs on the record) . . .it's worth acquiring . .a complete mixed bag . .not every song is great, but you'll definitely find somethin on it you'll love.

Among those featured: Sun Ra, Tom Waits, Sinead O'Connor, Buster Poindexter, Herb Alpert(!) . . . and I was never crazy about Bonnie Raitt, but she does the most amazingly heart-breaking version of 'Baby Mine' (the lullaby Dumbo's mom sings to him) . .that alone is worth the price of admission.

it's nice to know there are other fans of her music. I didn't know one of her songs was on a Disney album. I'll have to check that one out too.