Today we’d like to introduce you to Sacha Boutros.
Sacha, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I went to private catholic school most of my life, University of San Diego for Marketing and International Business. I sang in the church choir growing up and music was something I did because it made me happy. There were three things I loved, soccer, tennis and classical piano and jazz. I had sports and academic scholarships and met most of my goals excelling in these areas.
Singing as a professional started as a fluke, and when my soccer career ended abruptly to injury the doors of music opened. Had it been up to me I would have rather been a soccer star and ran up and down that field all day as the playmaking center midfielder, it was my first love and one I still continue to practice today by occasionally joining a pick-up game with the boys or watching games at the pub with friends. In Mexico futbol is something engrained in our culture. On Sunday you go to church, eat and watch soccer.
Music.
I found out I could sing more than just hymnals and love the American Songbook. I had memorized just about every Cole Porter and George Gershwin song by the time I was 14 including all the verses that no one sings anymore. I knew all the words to every Mills Brothers Songs, Sinatra, Dorsey Brothers, Big Band stuff and even obscure Noel Coward and Chaplin songs with alternate lyrics.
Singing happened when I was in college and I decided to take a “gig.” I was very competitive and when I first saw a local San Diego girl with her trio I said, “hey I can do that better in the shower.” Of course we all think we are professional singers in the shower. Nonetheless I called every friend I had including all the girls from the tennis team and all the guys from the soccer team and they all came, I packed the place out and was offered every week. I realized quickly the importance of the “bottom line,” great marketing and being rewarded for making the venue money. I got paid in pasta alla Norma, an Italian soda, as I NEVER drank and 75 bucks for 2 hours of my time on a Thursday after soccer practice. I don’t think at the time it mattered what I sounded like, I looked good and that was the way in the door and right there I realized many gigs would come in a similar fashion. I was told by Stefano the owner of the Jazz Club Michelangelo, “iffa u singa asa gud asa u luk, you gotta da job.” I said better, he said deal.
So I have always been a believer that you must be well prepared mentally, in shape, suited up and ready to go for each soccer match if you want to win.
I was not ready for these gigs so I learned and that part about fake it till you make it well it is true but all the while I was preparing myself. I studied opera 3-4 times a week for 2 hours plus vocalizing to learn how to sing properly for years until I could no longer afford it as I was working to pay for what at the time people called my “hobby.” A few years later I switched to Jazz full on and never looked back. Of course I occasionally throw an aria in a set or even throw in some Broadway, I do not believe there are borders in music and we can do whatever makes us happy and by that I mean the crowd because in concerts I look to see what they like and making them happy makes me happy. I have a little over a 4 octave range.
Aside from being a music maker I like to find ways to connect with people. Since I was 12 I volunteered with Father Joe at St. Vincent de Paul Village, I countlessly go to orphanages in Mexico and I don’t believe in walls between people. A few years ago I headed a project with an amazing team at the Border Public Art Committee and designed a mural at the border, with tons of new seating for the 25k people that cross their daily. People are working people and needed some inspiration and a place to sit to rest for a moment. I always saw tired people leaning on that wall as a kid and my grandfather would go around cheering them up. I am proud of that project, it made a difference in the community, it is entitled “A Place Where Soles Meet.” On the mural were the footprints of people that had traversed between San Ysidro and Tijuana that one particular day in a wave like a bridge uniting Mexico and The United States. We worked with the Mexican Consul who funded the project and it was one of the more meaningful things I have done. I don’t believe we need to limit our lives to one particular thing but really like a tree when can be deeply rooted to the earth and spread our branches in different directions to the heavens. I could not imagine my life just being a singer somewhere in some small town.
I want to make a difference on this planet in some way every day to someone somehow. Every so often I am awed by the kindness of strangers who want nothing in return, this is a small token of living faith, of daily miracles that happen between people. In my business I tend to forget this. I get stuck in the mundane world of music which is joyful but the mundane part is the business side of the whole thing. As a woman in this business for over 20 years I have seen and experienced more negativity that I would like to. I have decided today to let the next chapter be positive and to remember the feeling of that humbling moment when a perfect stranger makes your life better in some way. That is kindness and I was to live from a place where I pay that forward and it so engrained in my cells that I run on a happy autopilot. I find the hardest challenge in this business is to stay on my spiritual path and not let all the injustice, the discrimination, the negativity and all the other bull shit get me down. I have failed so many times, I get back up again. I would not be where I am if I did not try to be better each time. The music business feels like a million paper cuts all over your body and then someone pours lemon on you and pats you on the back. But then you sing. You sing to lovely people that hire you at Jazz on the Plazz in Los Gatos or Chez Papa in Paris and they are kind and compassionate and you realize ahhhh this is what it is all about.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
You see happy faces in your audience and hug and share love with perfect strangers that you may never see again in your love but someone they have touched your heart in some way and you have touched them.
There are tons of other things like being taken seriously and getting fair wages.
Getting your music out and competing in major markets with minimal marketing and production budgets.
Those are another conversation.
What else can I say, I was lucky to have many amazing mentors. James Moody what taught me how to scatt, Frankie Laine who introduced me, Red Holloway my musical father who taught me everything about the music business and Jimmy Borges who held the spiritual torch while in this business and taught me clever things. I am forever grateful and also to have opened and met Julio Iglesias and countless amazing musicians and actors and artists.
I started 4 years ago something called Sacha’s Supper Club, a pop up social supper club that travels and is like going to the rainbow room complete with big band, dancers, dinner and show. Sacha’s Supper Club builds bridges of community through music and art and is Dining, Dancing and Romancing the Old Fashioned Way. http://www.sachassupperclub.com
Not sure what else I can include. I felt my time in San Diego had ran its course so I moved to Paris, France. Only so much you can do in your hometown, they think you are potatoes here and around the world they think you are meat but who knows in America one doesn’t make sense without the other. All I can say is whatever you do in life be joyful, happy and pass it on, kindness is free. Thanks for letting me write my feelings on here.
Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
Staying on a Spiritual Path (MOST IMPORTANT REASON)
Being taken seriously and getting fair wages.
Getting your music out and competing in major markets with minimal marketing and production budgets.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
People can see me each week in San Diego through September at The Lot La Jolla on Thursday and The Lot Orange County of Sundays.
My last performance of the year on the West Coast is at Sachas Supper Club at The Fairmont Grand Del Mar’s Club M October 4th. I return to Paris, where I live part time in October. The concert is entitled: Meet me in LaLa Land 2. The themes from the great movies.
If they want to see me other places around the world mainly Europe for the next 6 months they can check my tour schedule. www.lareinedujazz.com I will be in London, Vienna, Paris and other fun cities.
I have music available on iTunes and a new cd coming out in the fall as well as a pop single in French.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lareinedujazz.com
- Email: sachalareina@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/lareinedujazz
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/lareinedujazz
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/lareinedujazz
- Other: www.facebook.com/sachaboutros
Image Credit:
The Candid Shot in front of the Arc de Triomphe was after a gig and Fabrice Thompson, one of paris’ premier percussionists took it.
-First 3 Pictures are backstage at different concerts in different ciities and one dancing arabic at sachas supper club
-Adele Godfrey (with leather Jacket)
-Third and Fourth Laura Bravo Mertz with the lace outfit
-the one in with karrin allyson and ann hampton callaway are during a performance in New York by Adele Godfrey
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