| Sophie Milman Goes Uptown...And Downtown |
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Sophie Milmansophiemilman.commyspace.com/sophiemilman August 20, 7:30 and 9:30 pm Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola Broadway & 60th Street jalc.org August 21, 9:00 pm Joe's Pub 425 Lafayette Street joespub.com  "Make Someone Happy" hits stores on August 28th  The stunning Sophie Milman will be appearing at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola on August 20th, and Joe's Pub on August 21st Sophie’s story continues to inspire. After emigrating from Russia to Israel with her family at the tender age of 7, then moving again at 16 to seek a new life in Canada, the transition from bookish teenager to glamorous jazz ingénue was perhaps unlikely. It was the offer of a recording contract after just three or four professional singing engagements that touched off a series of events that soon found this beautiful, multilingual talent with a record deal and a 2006 Juno Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album. In addition, Milman has has performed with such legends Chick Corea and the Neville Brothers. "Make Someone Happy," which will be released on August 28th, is produced by Juno Award-winning producer Steven McKinnon--who brings a sophisticated, sultry air to the recordings. The album is a good mix of originals, renditions of jazz classics, and interesting interpretations of rock and pop hits. The title track, a well-known classic written by Jule Styne, evoked this response in Milman after hearing Carmen McRae’s heartrending 1963 rendition: "I heard it and just broke down in tears. The lyrics really reflected the emotional space that I was in, trying to process all the things that my life had become." While other jazz classics appear here, such as the Peggy Lee hit "Fever," her versions of non-jazz tunes are what makes this album truly stand out. Along with a harmonica-laden version of "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" from "Fiddler on the Roof," Milman also chose to cover Stevie Wonder's "Rocket Love" and the Guess Who's "Undun" (featuring contributions from that band's Randy Bachman). But the most interesting of all is "It's Not Easy Being Green"--originally made famous by the one-and-only Kermit the Frog. While Sophie Milman might appear to be a little "green" when you look at the relative newness of her career, her talents and natural vocal instinct gives her the appearance of someone with five times the experience. If you're a jazz aficionado with any sense, get in on this young vocalist while her career is still young--and with so much more to come. If for some reason you can't make the first show on Monday, August 20th (at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola), you can catch the stunning Sophie Milman the next evening (with Peter Eldridge) at one of our favorite venues, Joe's Pub in the East Village.
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