The story of Ottilie Patterson is traced in a new BBC NI documentary
Date Posted: January 23, 2023
In a new documentary, My Name Is Ottilie, Dana Masters goes on a journey to trace the story of Ottilie Patterson by meeting those who knew and played with her, as she learns about her extraordinary life and career, and attempts to find out why Ottilie’s career was cut so short in the 1960s. Produced by DoubleBand Films with funding from Northern Ireland Screen, the documentary airs on Wednesday 1st February at 10:40pm on BBC One Northern Ireland.
One night in 1959, a 27-year-old female singer took to the stage in front of an audience at Smitty’s Corner, Muddy Water’s renowned blues club in Chicago’s South Side. After her stunning performance, a member of the rapturous black audience called out – “Hey lady, you sing real pretty. How come you sing like one of us?”
The singer’s name was Ottilie Patterson. And she wasn’t black. She wasn’t even American. She was from Comber, in County Down, Northern Ireland, just ten miles from Belfast.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ottilie Patterson was the rising star of British jazz and blues music. As an acclaimed singer with the Chris Barber Band, she and the band were at the forefront of the Trad Jazz scene packing out jazz clubs all around Britain, and relentlessly touring Europe and America.
Together Ottilie and Chris paved the way for bands such as The Rolling Stones and The Pretty Things, inspiring their passion for American blues music, and they played a pioneering role in the development of British rhythm and blues music.
Yet, why did Ottilie Patterson, the woman from Northern Ireland, who became the first female blues singer in the UK to achieve near pop status, and who performed with American blues legends such as Muddy Waters, Ella Fitzgerald and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, disappear from the story of British music?
In Ottilie Patterson, Dana sees a woman whose story, in many respects, mirrors her own experience. Not only through their shared love of jazz and blues, but in how Ottilie travelled from Northern Ireland to find acceptance in America as a singer of jazz and blues; and how Dana made the journey in reverse, to build a career singing jazz and blues in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
In Dana’s search of the story of Ottilie Patterson, she will discover and reveal the challenges Ottilie faced as a woman in music in the late 1950s and 1960s, the cost of a life spent on the road and a career devoted to music.
My Name Is Ottilie includes contributions from Jools Holland, Jacqui Dankworth, Dick Taylor (The Pretty Things), Stu Morrison (The Chris Barber Band), and blues musician Ronnie Greer, and featuring a revealing never-before heard audio interview with Ottilie Patterson, this documentary reclaims her rightful place in the history of British music.
Dana Masters says: “When I discovered that there was this singing sensation from Northern Ireland in the 1950’s playing the Blues on a global stage, I found myself wondering why most people don’t even know her name. You have to really understand the pain expressed in the Blues in order to sing it, I had to know where that was coming from for Ottilie Patterson.”
Director Dermot Lavery adds: “The mystery of why most us have not heard of the magnificent 1950’s Blues singer Ottilie Patterson is in fact a cautionary tale for our own times. In the end it’s her extraordinary music that will bring her back to life.”
