14 November 2008

Yma Sumac Gone

Yma Sumac, the subject of some album cover posts on this blog recently died. Here is what Camille Paglia says about her:
... I was startled to read of the death last week of Yma Sumac, the virtuoso five-octave Peruvian singer who seems like a legendary figure of the misty past. Sumac's 1950 debut album, "Voice of the Xtabay," made a tremendous impact on me as a child. My family attended her performance (with her company of 20 artists) at the Binghamton Theatre in what was probably 1951. I still have the yellowed clippings and program, which lists songs eerily mimicking the sound of the Andean winds and earthquakes. The cover image of "Voice of the Xtabay" with a glamorous Sumac in the pose of a prophesying priestess against a background of fierce sculptures and an erupting volcano, contains the entire pagan worldview and nature cult of what would become my first book, "Sexual Personae," published 40 years later. Thank you, Yma!

2 comments:

Mark Miller said...

Now that you let the Paglia genie out of the bottle...can we get your reactions to her comments on Sarah Palin?

CityKin said...

I enjoy Paglia's wit and condescending attitude, however when she is wrong, she doesn't just go half way. She jumps all the way in, not just defending Palin from wrongheaded assults but championing her as an intellectual hero.

Give me a break. I know what I've seen with my own eyes. Starbursts cloud Camille's perception.