“I am interested in singing songs that move me, in a way that moves people,” says Sophie Milman, a twenty-four year old jazz singer from Toronto, Canada, whose current CD Make Someone Happy, soared to the  # 4 spot on Billboard’s jazz charts.

With emotionally deep, evocative vocals, combined with poise and confidence that suggests a much more seasoned artist, Sophie Milman has tantalized North American audiences, with songs such as producer Steve Mackinnon’s “Something In The Air Between Us,” (co-written with Marc Jordan). Her stylish interpretation of Stevie Wonder’s “Rocket Love,” is sultry, and leans ever so slightly towards pop.

Milman serves up a soulful “(It Isn’t Easy) Bein’ Green,” which is one of the prettiest songs that I have listened to in 2007. Her musicians, particularly upright bassist Kieran Overs, in addition to the elegant pianist Paul Schrofel, guitarist Rob Piltch, and John Fraboni (drums), make listening to this tune, an enchanting experience.

Listening as Milman speaks, it is difficult to imagine there being a time in her life when she felt she was not accepted and did not fit in. She revealed this part of her life when talking about her deep connection with the Joe Raposo tune, “(It’s Not Easy) Bein’ Green,” a song that was immortalized by Kermit the Frog.

“Songs such as “(It Isn’t Easy) Bein’ Green,” are a little autobiographical, because of the type of life that I have been through. With the immigration (first from Russia to Israel, and later from Israel to Canada), I always felt like I was a bit of an outsider, so when, as an adult, I heard the song for the first time, I thought, ‘This song is really about me. I can really deliver this song,’” says Milman, “The song is truly the story of my life. I was not the popular kid in school. I sometimes say during my shows that I spent my life as the stranger looking (through a window) at the popular people, with their shiny blonde hair, playing volleyball. That is how I imagined it. They were always happy, always carefree, whereas I was the outsider. We were struggling financially for years, and I was awkward, shy, intense and dark. That doesn’t make for a very popular high school experience. When I sing the song, it is really something that I feel, and that is why it connects so well.” 

In response to my playful jab about it not being easy to cover a frog, Milman replies, “Yes, but it has gone over pretty well. I didn’t know what to expect when I recorded it. I didn’t go in with any expectations about what was going to connect with people (on the CD), and what was not going to connect.  I don’t know how many of them had actually stopped, and thought about the song as something other than a song sung by a frog. When I sing it live, at first, they (the audience) laugh, and then they think, ‘I can’t believe she is singing Kermit the Frog’s song. The lyrics are really quite intense, so they aren’t laughing by the end of the song. People have cried. It is really interesting to me, how that song can provoke a lot of emotion. Unless they are really super connected with jazz, and know the Shirley Horn or Ray Charles versions (they will only associate it with Kermit).

For the most part, the connection with Raposo’s song mirrors how Milman feels about the other songs that appear on her album Make Someone Happy. “On this CD it was about the lyrics, which have a sharp connection to my past, or my life experiences. It is about how I interpret the world, or how I feel. I am a very intense person, so I feel things very intensely. When I hear a song that I connect with, I just go, ding, ding, ding, in my head. It’s a no brainer, and I just have to sing it,” she says.

The title track “Make Someone Happy,” is another song to which Milman has a deep connection, “I have been singing it for years now, but within the context of this record, it is a song that summarizes the last three years of my life. (I have been) trying to make everybody happy, starting with audiences, my professors (she is pursuing a commerce degree), and at the same time trying to figure out what it is that makes me happy. I have learned that I am a very complicated person, whether for good, or for bad. I really wanted this record to show my personality a lot more than the first (record), and it is more personal.”

Considering Canada is the third country in which Milman has lived, it seems only fitting that her CD has a bit of a multicultural flavor to it. There is a nod to her Jewish heritage with Hannah Senesh’s “Eli, Eli (A Walk To Caesarea).” She also sings in French on the Cameron Wallis / Sara Latendresse tune, “Reste (Stay).” She pays tribute to a Canadian music icon Randy Bachman with her cover of the Guess Who’s hit song “Undun.”