She’s still in her 20s, but Sophie Milman displays the poise
and polish of a jazz veteran. Blessed with a warm alto voice,
Sophie has taken the jazz world by storm ever since her
self-titled debut five years ago. Her second album, 2007’s
Make Someone Happy, won a Juno Award for Top Jazz Vocal Album. All the
while, the hard-working singer was juggling her burgeoning music career
with her business studies at the University of Toronto.
Born in Russia to an engineer father and a graduate-student mother, So-
phie has always been ambitious. She and her family escaped from behind
the Iron Curtain and moved to Israel before eventually settling in Canada.
Fluent in four languages – Russian, Hebrew, French and English – Sophie
pursued her mother’s love of literature and her father’s taste for jazz while
studying commerce. And she credits her parents for making her what she
calls a “Balzac-reading jazz freak.”
Sophie’s third CD, Take Love Easy, is a major step forward for the young
Canadian diva. The album finds her tackling jazz standards, including a
gorgeous rendition of the Duke Ellington title track as well as two Cole
Porter numbers and an Antonio Carlos Jobim bossa nova. But showing her
more adventurous side, Sophie also turns several pop standards into some-
thing fresh. She reinvents Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” as a slow ’n’
sultry jazz ballad and transforms Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your
Lover” into a cheeky salsa scorcher. Taking chances with pop classics is risky
but admirable. Call it Sophie’s choice.