By Mimi Pollack
Sacha Boutros is an old soul. This award-winning San Diego jazz singer channels bygone eras naturally. She has been listening to records, and singing along, since she was a child, especially 78s. Her love of music came early, and on every birthday, she would always ask for a piano and eventually took piano lessons.
She favors the rhythms of the past in both English and Spanish, slipping easily from a standard of the 1940’s or 1950’s to a Sinatra tune, to a romantic song by Los Panchos. Her style combines old school and elegance.
Boutros is trilingual as she grew up in an international home with a Mexican mother and a Lebanese/French father. Her face reflects her Sephardic roots. She sings in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hebrew, and Yiddish.
She was also athletic as a child and teen, excelling in soccer, and received a soccer scholarship to the University of San Diego. She graduated with a major in international business and marketing. After graduation, she decided to try a career in music, and has been tirelessly pursuing her dream ever since, even taking opera classes to hone her four-and-a-half-octave voice.
She has also put her business degree to good use as she does all her own promotion and marketing. She is her own business manager, making all the arrangements down to the last detail. She combines her artistic side with business acumen.
Boutros has released three CD’s, including 2013’s “NY After Dark.” Her latest project is Sacha’s Supper Club working together with the historic Lafayette Hotel. This hotel is the perfect venue for a show evoking an elegant time from the past. The plan is for it to be a monthly, themed event.
Boutros came up with the idea of Sacha’s Supper Club as a throwback to the nightclubs of the 1940’s and 1950’s where men and women dressed up and danced, and a night out was a special occasion.
She decided on the Lafayette Hotel after attending an awards ceremony there in the Mississippi Room. She found it to be the ideal setting and set about organizing the event.
The first Sacha’s Supper Club was in May and it was a sold-out show. The second show will be next Thursday, June 11. The theme will be Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack. Each month Boutros will also invite a guest artist. For the month of June, it will be crooner Jonathan Karrant.
The goal is for people to relive the feeling of days gone by. The dress code calls for “elegant attire,” not California casual, and men will be required to wear a jacket. Boutros would eventually like to take Sacha’s Supper Club on the road.
Boutros’ other project is an upcoming CD of old-time Cuban music, called “Havana After Dark.” Her goal is to break into the Latin American market, and gain new fans on both sides of the border. With her talent and determination, no doubt she will.
Tickets for Sacha’s Supper Club on Thursday, June 11, are available online at http://www.sachassupperclubjune.bpt.me.
Mimi Pollack is an ESL teacher and a freelance writer.
