Tempe Otto spent 15 years in the Atlanta jazz scene, taking audiences around the world with a blend of classic American jazz and international music. She now sews and does alterations at Lexington Marketplace. (Lexie Shadix/The Oglethorpe Echo)
Tempe Otto was standing before a packed house at The Velvet Note, an award-winning listening room in Alpharetta. It was August 2013, and the club was filled with patrons waiting to hear the jazz singer.
“I sold out twice there, and I was shocked,” Otto said. “That was the highlight of everything that I did.”
For a decade and a half, Otto traversed the Atlanta jazz scene. From elegant restaurants like Ray’s on the River to private events, she sang alongside accomplished musicians, such as keyboardists Darren Ginn and Bill Wilson, and drummer Emrah Kotan.
Now, she has traded the forward momentum of jazz for the mechanical hum of a sewing machine at Lexington Marketplace, where she began working as a seamstress in January.
“Just being able to bring someone’s garment to the point where it’s wearable and they can enjoy it again, I love that,” Otto said. “I see people light up and say ‘I love that I can wear this now.’”
She relocated to Elberton in May 2025, looking for a change from city life, and soon fell in love with the atmosphere of the marketplace in nearby Oglethorpe County.
As a trained hairstylist, Otto initially aimed to open a salon inside the building. But since Main Street already had a hairdresser, owner Linda Parish suggested she try sewing instead. She now handles alterations and specializes in recreating Tudor-era fashion.
“She just fits right in with our group, and we love her,” Parish said. “She waits on customers when one of us can’t be there … she’s got a lot of repeat business, and she brings customers in.”
Otto is entirely self-taught, relying on patterns and trial and error to learn the craft. The skill was born out of a need to alter her own outfits during her time on stage.
Just like becoming a seamstress wasn’t Otto’s initial goal in Oglethorpe, standing in a sold-out room wasn’t what she envisioned when she began singing.
She first stepped up to the microphone at local Virginia karaoke nights, entering competitions to win extra prize money to support her family. When she realized she could make a living with her voice, she thought it might turn into something more.
“That’s when I was like, ‘You know what, I can make money doing this, I just need a band,’” Otto said.
After moving to Marietta, she devoted two years of evenings and weekends to sharpening her skills, and her part-time gig officially took off in the early 2000s.
She honored the melodies that attracted her to the genre, singing American jazz standards and The Great American Songbook. But Otto routinely ventured further, blending songs memorized in French, Italian and Portuguese into her repertoire.
“In my show, I would take (the audience) around the world,” Otto said. “There’s just so much music to cover, so my MO was to bring that back for Americans to listen to.”
The classic jazz was infused with the rhythms of Brazilian bossa nova and unique instruments like castanets. Otto would even add a touch of opera to end the performance.
“(It) was very well received from people, because it was so different, really,” Ginn said. “There was nobody else really in town that was doing quite what we were doing … nobody would present quite like Tempe would present.”
She played five nights a week at the peak of her career, but sustaining that schedule required discipline. Lacking formal training, Otto struggled with the technicalities of musical timing and credits her bandmates, particularly Wilson, with helping refine her craft. Otto eventually paid it forward by coaching two students of her own.
“I pass it on, and then they pass it on,” Wilson said.
Though currently “semi-retired” and enjoying her work in Lexington, Otto doesn’t mix singing with sewing, but said she may return to the jazz scene if she finds the right musical partner again.
“I love it, and I miss it,” Otto said. “I’ve been busy here, but it’d be nice to have a little bit of both worlds.”