Sukay


Sukay is an Andean folk music band.

History

Sukay, an international touring musical group, is known in the United States for bringing the music of the Andes for the first time to cities and concert stages throughout North America. The group’s name came from the ancient language and culture of the Quechua of the central Andes, and it means “to open the earth and make it ready for planting”
For 25 years before the opening of Peña Pachamama in San Francisco in the late '90s, SUKAY had appeared on hundreds of the great stages across America including New York's Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheater and Vilar Center for the Arts, San Francisco's Herbst Theatre, Masonic Auditorium, Washington DC's Lisner Auditorium and Smithsonian's Baird Auditorium, Bushnell Performing Arts Center, Hartford, Banff Center Theatre, Alberta, Detroit Institute for the Arts, MI, Arizona's Roy Disney Center for the Performing Arts and Centennial Hall, Spivey Hall, GA, Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, Wilder Hall at Oberlin College, OH, Live Oak Theatre, Austin, Annenberg Center for Performing Arts, PA, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley CA, Scottsdale Center for the Arts, AZ, Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater, NY, Obert C.Tanner Amphitheater, Zion National Park, UT and the Colisée in Quebec City. The group also appeared at major festivals in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto, at Pete Seeger's Clearwater Festival and countless other venues.
Sukay recorded twenty-four albums. Among the Andean legends joining them were Yuri Ortuño “the Plácido Domingo of Bolivia”, Savia Andina’s renowned wind instrumentalist Alcides Mejia, Argentine guitarist Enrique Coria and Eddy Navia, one of Bolivia’s beloved charangists. Eddy went on to become Sukay’s artistic director and husband of Sukay's co-founder Quentin H Navia. In the mid-'70s, Eddy had Eric Clapton status in his native country. The music of his band stayed atop the South America Top 40 charts, and several of their 35 album recordings on CBS and RCA went gold.
Sukay was founded in 1975 by quena player Quentin H Navia and Edmond Badoux, and she is the bands only remaining original member. In 1978 the group brought pan-pipe player Gonzalo Vargas from Bolivian and together with Bolivian guitarist Javier Canelas the group became a quartet. Gonzalo Vargas left Sukay in 1984 and in the late 80s formed his group Inkuyo with another musician who toured with Sukay, Omar Sepulveda. Renowned Bolivian composer and charango player Eddy Navia joined Sukay in 1989.
Eddy & Quentin Navia founded the Peña Pachamama in San Francisco, CA, which for the past 22 years has become a gathering place for great world music artists.
Quentin & Eddy Navia are the owners of the copyright and publishing rights of all recordings of Sukay, Eddy Navia, Savia Andina Classics 1, 2 and 3, Great Instrumentals of Bolivia, Pachamama.

Discography