Sophie Milman's Strange Path To Jazz
By Caitlin Johnson
Sophie Milman was born in the U.S.S.R. just as the communist government was beginning to crumble. She and her family left for Israel when she was just seven, but her love for American jazz standards can be traced back to a small and seemingly modest act of rebellion by her father.
Instead of towing the Communist party line and listening to Soviet music, Millman's father somehow got his hands on jazz records, which wasn't exactly forbidden, but definitely was not encouraged.
"I think my father's accumulation of jazz records was sort of a response - 'I don't want to listen to Russian romances. I don't want to listen to this music that was force-fed by the government,'" Milman told The ShowBuzz. "'I'm going to go out and I'm going to get some Oscar Peterson records.'"
She and her family relocated to Israel, and made their way to Canada almost 10 years later. She is now 24. "Even though it's been sort of a long and convoluted journey, I feel like Canada is finally home and I feel very, very good there," she said. "And I think all my life experiences have enriched my music in a way and made me culturally aware."
So far, it seems to be paying off. Her second album, "Make Someone Happy," was released in August and hit No. 4 on the Billboard Jazz Chart.Photos: In Concert
The album features classic American jazz songs like "Fever" and "People Will Say we're In Love." Her rendition of "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" from "Fiddler on the Roof" is a tribute to her Russian-Jewish heritage, and she even sings an Israeli song, "Eli, Eli, A Walk to Caesaria."
Kermit the Frog's signature song "It's Not Easy Being Green" has become her own personal anthem about being an outsider.
It's no coincidence that many of the songs Milman chooses to reinterpret date back a few years. Much of the music by her contemporaries fails to speak to her the same way the classics - especially those from her favorite artist, Stevie Wonder - do. She covers "Rocket Love," one of Wonder's more obscure hits, on "Make Someone Happy."
"Great music from the past, that's what I connect to," she said. "I feel like it had a lot more soul, a lot more personality. I think everybody should really go back to the old stuff. It's cool if you like the stuff today, and there are some really good artists. It's just there is something about the period between the '50s and the beginning of the '80s."
Milman says she plans to go on tour across the United States soon. Her Web site will have the dates.