Sophie Milman

Sophie Milman at the Uptown Waterloo Jazz Festival (2010)

Sophie Milman (* 1984 in Ufa , Bashkir ASSR , Soviet Union ) is a Canadian jazz singer with Russian - Jewish roots.

Musical career

In the mid-1990s, Sophie Milman's family emigrated to Israel and settled in Haifa . One of the main reasons for emigrating was the press restrictions in Russia, which her mother, a journalist , tried to escape. The material conditions in the new home were modest in the first few years: at times, the parents had two jobs to make ends meet. When Sophie Milman was 16, the family moved to Canada and settled in Toronto . She got her first contact with music through her father's extensive record collection, which he brought with him from Russia. In addition to records from pop and rock bands such as the Beatles and Led Zeppelin , it also contained gospel , jazz and classical works .

At the age of 18, the future singer enrolled at the University of Toronto to study economics . She had her first gig a year later. The jazz impresario and pianist Bill King discovered her on the occasion of a series of performances with young local talent . King took care of other performance opportunities, but the number initially remained manageable. However, Milman was lucky. The Canadian jazz label Linus Entertainment signed her and released her first CD. The 2004 debut entitled "Sophie Milman" contained a few standards from the Great American Songbook , the title La vie en rose and a jazz interpretation of the famous Russian folk song Ochi Chernye (Black Eyes) . With over 100,000 copies sold, "Sophie Milman" was a commercial success. Like the two follow-up albums, the release reached top spots in the Jazz Album category on the Billboard charts . In Apple's iTunes Music Store , Milman's first work temporarily reached first place on the jazz charts .

The two follow-up albums "Make Someone Happy ..." (2007) and "Take Love Easy" (2009) were correspondingly successful. "Make Someone Happy ..." received the Juno Award for best jazz album of the year. Album number three, “Take Love Easy”, received positive reviews. Some cover interpretations from the fields of pop and rock such as I'm on Fire by Bruce Springsteen , Be Cool by Joni Mitchell and 50 Ways to Leave your Lover by Paul Simon were particularly praised . In 2008 Milman made a number of gigs outside of Canada - including at New York's Blue Note Club . She completed joint event programs with well-known jazz greats such as Chick Corea and the Manhattan Transfer group .

Sophie Milman continued her studies parallel to her musical career. The singer is fluent in four languages ( Russian , Hebrew , English and French ) - a diversity that is also reflected in the chosen song repertoire. Although she described herself as non-religious in an interview, she said on various occasions that dealing with ethnic Judaism and Jewish identity is an issue for her. She set a corresponding musical accent with the song "Eli Eli (A Walk to Caesarea)" on her second CD. In addition to the studio albums, two live releases have been released so far: Live at The Winter Garden Theater (2007) and Live In Montreal (2008).

Style and reviews

Sophie Milman in an appearance (2008)

Sophie Milman mentions Mahalia Jackson , Sarah Vaughan , Ella Fitzgerald , Nat King Cole , Oscar Peterson and Stevie Wonder as important musical influences in her youth . She was also influenced by the vocalists Peggy Lee and Billie Holiday . She also admires Carmen McRae . In an interview, she described Ella Fitzgerald as her great idol. Of the artists currently in the limelight, however, Diana Krall is the one who paved the way for younger singers with her success.

Unlike Diana Krall or singers like Norah Jones , who occasionally or regularly look for a crossover to easy listening or current pop music, Sophie Milman prefers classic jazz combo instrumentation for her studio releases. The standard line-up (vocals, piano, guitar, bass and drums) is supplemented by additional instruments such as violin, accordion, vibraphone, saxophone or a horn section, depending on the title. The singer complements the classic jazz style of playing with a song repertoire that includes classics and new compositions as well as pop songs, chansons , songs transferred into other languages (“Stay” or “Reste”) or folk songs from the Russian or Hebrew culture.

The press received the music of Sophie Milman, especially the third album, with consistently positive reviews. The music portal rocktimes.de wrote: “With lounge jazz , bop , bossa nova and swing among others , this album is consistently going off impressively well. Sophie Milman is growing up to be a serious competitor for some well-known names. With the voice you can visually imagine that it would look brilliant even if only accompanied by the piano. ”The gaesteliste.de site praised the classically reduced setting and the successful adaptation of songs from other musical styles. The MDR culture site MDR Figaro summed up Take Love Easy : "Sophie Milman conveys something of the proper freshness of the 1950s in the swinging songs, but then the cool jazz peeps around the corner again."