His first visit to New York, in 1952, proved another inspiration. In 1951, Sacha won first prize in a nationwide competition for guitar, and went on to hold the top place three years running. Ray Ventura's band had many of the best instrumentalists in France in its line-up, and in his teens Sacha started to take lessons with the famous guitarist and composer Henri Salvador (author of Rock And Rollmops and Le Blues Du Dentiste). In 1948, he heard the jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's first Paris concert, which proved a revelation - he promptly abandoned piano for the guitar. ![]() Although she survived, and was reunited with her family after the liberation of France in 1944, their son Sacha always said that this traumatic experience left him with a deep insecurity for the rest of his life. ![]() In 1942, she was arrested by the Gestapo and interned in a German camp. The family was partly Jewish, and although Ray Ventura went to America during the war, his sister was not so fortunate. Their son was born in Paris, and grew up in a world full of backstage gossip and music.
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