Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac was born 100 years ago today. Marketed as an Incan princess (an assertion supported by the Peruvian government), Sumac possessed a preternatural five-octave range. That’s a Guinness record.

She was a pioneer in the world music genre, dubbed the Queen of Exotica. At times, she emulated bird song, at others she sounded like a didgeridoo. She attributed her extraordinary range to having been reared in the Andes, where the high altitude caused her to develop her exceptional lung power.

She was certainly one of a kind. I imagine her as having stepped out of the pages of W.H. Hudson’s “Green Mansions.”

Here, she sings “Chuncho” (“The Forest Creatures”), from 1954, by her husband, Moisés Vivanco.

On June 25, 1953, Sumac appeared on a Lewisohn Stadium concert, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. The program included the Piano Concerto No. 4 by Heitor Villa-Lobos, with Bernardo Segall the soloist, Aaron Copland’s “Danzon Cubano,” and “Three Brazilian Dances” by Camargo Guarnieri, with Sumac performing works by Vivanco and others. Here, she’s like a human theremin as she lends her voice to Debussy’s “Clair de lune.”

She appeared in “Secret of the Incas” with Charlton Heston, in 1954, a primary inspiration for “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

Decades later, in 1987, she appeared on “Late Night with David Letterman.”

She received a late-career boost from the lounge revival of the 1990s, as her albums began to be reissued on compact disc. Her recording of “Ataypura” was used to introduce Ben Gazzara as Jackie Treehorn in the “The Big Lebowski.” (It’s the second song she sings at the “Secret of the Incas” link above).

“Gopher Mambo,” from 1954, again by Vivanco, has been used many times, including at the 2018 Olympics.

Sumac’s final concert appearance was at the Montreal Jazz Festival, on July 1, 1997, when she was 74 years-old. “The Peruvian Songbird” died in 2008 at the age of 86.