Yma Sumac at 83

Queen of Exotica (2005) – Yma Sumac [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Fabulous documentary here provided by the ever reliable Ombres Blanches. Yma Súmac belongs to the intriguing exotica category. Yma is alive and will be 85 coming September. Here and here is some Yma at MySpace, the reliable source for instantaneous auditory gratification, just as is Youtube for the moving visuals gratification and Flickr for stills.

I quote Ombres Blanches’s post in full:

If someone always wanted to know what that Xtabay is that Yma Sumac sings of, here’s the answer:

“Xtabay litterally means ‘Female Ensnarer’ and can refer to (1) a basically Mesoamerican demon who seduces and kills, and (2) a female deity of the hunt, on a par with the male Ah Tabay. The Xtabay is not to be confused with Ix-Tab, a 16th-century Yucatecan goddess of suicides.

A legend of Xtabay (the female demon) tells us about two women who lived in a village in the Yucatán Peninsula. One was named Xtabay, but people called her Xkeban (which means prostitute, bad woman or who practices illicit love), the other was Utz-Colel (a good, decent woman).

People said Xkeban was sick with lust and gave her favors to every man who asked her. Utz-Colel was virtuous and honest…” more…

In another tale – incindentally to be found in Benjamin Péret’s retelling of American myths and legends – La Xtabay turns out to be a female demon consisting of nothing else but hair.

A french documentary about Yma Sumac with some beautiful stock footage can be found here.