The eclectic Sophie Milman calls jazz and Canada her two constants.
After a whirlwind tour around the world, the Toronto-via-Israel-via-Russia chanteuse will return home to play Massey Hall Friday night in support of her third album, Take Love Easy, a collection of covers that include jazz, swing and contemporary classics such as Cole Porter’s Love For Sale, Bruce Springsteen’s I’m On Fire and Paul Simon’s 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.
Milman says she’s been looking forward to the Massey Hall gig for a while for a few reasons — the venue’s acoustics, she claims, are perfect. She also sold the place out when she played there two years ago. The fact that it’s on her home turf doesn’t hurt either.
“Whenever I see the CN Tower after a long tour, I start to break down and cry because I know I’m home,” she says. “Massey is a wonderfully scary one. The dressing room could be bigger. That’s my only complaint.”
After a whirlwind tour around the world, the Toronto-via-Israel-via-Russia chanteuse is touring Canada in support of her third album, Take Love Easy, a collection of covers that include jazz, swing and contemporary classics such as Cole Porter’s Love For Sale, Bruce Springsteen’s I’m On Fire and Paul Simon’s 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.
Expect to hear the aforementioned songs among the many subdued covers to which she’ll apply her sultry, husky vocals. It’s Milman’s modus operandi and it has worked well so far in the 5 years since she launched her self-titled debut. She’s sang to packed houses all over the world, including the Kennedy Center, the Hollywood Bowl and New York’s Blue Note Club. She also won a Juno Award for 2007’s Make Someone Happy after it broke into the top 5 on Billboard jazz chart.
As for scribing her own tunes? Forget it for now, says Milman. She’s perfectly comfortable applying her own style to previous works.
“My husband says I can’t rhyme,” she laughs. “And that’s pretty important. I haven’t really been driven to write and I don’t want to force things. When artists force things, it reflects in their work. I like to let things play out organically. I’m not saying I wouldn’t attempt it, but I haven’t had the desire to try. And I really believe that jazz has a real art to interpretation. It’s really difficult to take well-known songs and make them convincing.”
Fair enough then, she’ll stick to the covers, and one of her favourites is the much covered Bein’ Green, a song originally sung by long-suffering Muppet Kermit the Frog which makes an appearance on Make Someone Happy. The song, she says, is an allegory for her life. Milman spent a great deal of her childhood in Israel as an immigrant from the Soviet Union, where she developed a passion and a talent for jazz.
Growing up as a foreigner (Jewish herself, Milman notes the Soviet Union looked somewhat disparagingly at any citizen who wasn’t of pure Russian stock), Milman felt alienated until the family moved to Canada, where she used her music to build friendships and a professional career.
“Story of my life, that song,” she says. “But it all worked out in the end for me, just like it did for Kermit. I found my Rainbow Connection.”
In Concert
• Toronto: Massey Hall on Friday night.
