Patti Flynn (born Patricia Maude Young; April 1937 – 10 September 2020) was a Welsh jazz singer, author, model and social activist. She was a founder and patron of Black History Wales. In 2019 she was honoured with the Ethnic Minority Welsh Women Achievement Association's (EMWWAA) Lifetime Achievement Award.
Early life
Patti Flynn was born Patricia Maude Young, April 1937 in Sophia Street, Cardiff. She was the youngest child of six to Wilmott George Young and Beatrice Young (née Silver). Her father was merchant seaman from Jamaica arrived in Cardiff at the end of the First World War. Her mother was from Cardiff. Her father came to Cardiff during the 1920s and during the Second World War her father lost his life when his ship, the Ocean Vanguard, was torpedoed off the coast of Trinidad in 1942.
When Flynn was one year old, the family moved to 40 Pomeroy Street and she later attended St. Mary's School in Clarence Road, Cardiff. The family also lived in North Church Street, which is close to the Church of St Mary the Virgin and St Stephen the Martyr in Butetown.
Career Flynn gave her first professional in the Glamorgan pub in Tiger Bay at the age of 18, accompanied by her mentor, jazz guitarist Victor Parker. She went on to have a career as a jazz singer, and was a contemporary of Shirley Bassey, who was also born in the area of Tiger Bay. She was also an author, radio actress and was co-founder of the Butetown Bay Jazz Festival.
During the 1960s and 1970s, she performed in clubs, ballrooms and theatres across the United Kingdom and later worked internationally as a cabaret performer. In 1977, she made her West End debut as understudy to Elaine Delmar in the musical "Bubbling Brown Sugar" at the Royalty Theatre in London. She released her first album, "With Love to You", through SRT Productions in 1979, followed by the singles "Christmas Every Day" and "Soul Stuntman" in 1982.
Flynn moved to Spain in the mid-1980s, where she worked as a music producer and English-language radio presenter on the programmes "Just for You" and "Costa Nights". She later returned to Cardiff and resumed performing jazz, often collaborating with pianist Geoff Eales and trumpeter Chris Hodgkins. She also created, produced and presented "Jazz Ladies of the Twentieth Century" and "Trip Down Memory Lane", which featured music from the Great American Songbook. In 2006, she performed with Cleo Laine and John Dankworth at a Jazz Heritage Wales event. Flynn also formed the Bay Divas trio with sisters Humie and Jackie Webbe; the group later performed at St David's Hall in Cardiff.
Flynn researched black history and culture and contributed to the educational work of the Butetown History and Arts centre through music, writing and storytelling. In 2003, she collaborated with photographer Mathew Manning on Fractured Horizon: A Landscape of Memory, which explored the past and present of Cardiff's docklands through photographs and writing. The book was edited by Glenn Jordan, translated into Welsh by poet T. James Jones and published by the Butetown History and Arts Centre. In 2006, Flynn studied at Ruskin College in Oxford through the Learning and Skills Council's Ransackers Programme, where she completed two research and creative-writing projects: From a Seaside Town to a Capital City, about the history of Cardiff, and Colouring History, focusing on women of colour in history.
Later life and death
In later life Flynn lived in the Cardiff suburb of Fairwater.
She campaigned valiantly for 26 years to have a monument erected and together in 2019, Patti Flynn, Uzo Iwobi and Race Council Cymru worked with Deputy Minister and Chief Whip Jane Hutt MS, Cllr Susan Elsmore, Cardiff Council, Royal Commonwealth Society Wales, British Legion and British Armed Forces represented by Colonel Jonah MacGill and the stone masons organised to have the monument installed. Patti Flynn wrote the words on the face of the monument and in so doing ensured that her legacy and the selfless sacrifice of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic service men and women in Wales will never be extinguished". - Black History Wales
In 2019, Flynn was honoured with the Ethnic Minority Welsh Women Achievement Association's (EMWWAA) Lifetime Achievement Award, at the same time as her friend Humie Webbe who also won awards. She was also a founder and patron of Black History Wales.
At the time of her death, she was working on a memoir, Born Down My Tiger Bay, about Cardiff's docklands and its diverse community. Patti Flynn died of cancer on 10 September 2020, aged 83 years.
Bibliography
Fractured Horizon: A Landscape of Memory/Gorwel Briwedig: Tirlun Atgof 2003
Discography Album Year Title Details1979With Love To You SRT Productions Ltd Catalogue No SPTY/79/CUS 563
Singles
Year Title B Side Details1982"Xmas Every Day""Please Tell Me" Prairie Records Catalogue No PR 009"Soul Stuntmania""Stuntman" Movie Music Catalogue No MM 003
References
External links Patti Flynn talking about her life to Diverse Cymru