Thursday, May 07, 2009

Sophie Milman Tops iTunes Canada Charts - #1 Jazz Album

“A star in the making…the sky’s the limit for this exceptional young artist”
Los Angeles Times

2008 Juno Award-Winner
Sophie Milman
Tops iTunes Canada Charts - #1 Jazz Album
Take Love Easy Released May 5 on Linus Entertainment

Straight out of the gate, jazz sensation Sophie Milman’s new album Take Love Easy debuts at #1 on the iTunes Canada Jazz chart. With a Canadian release of May 5th, Sophie’s heart-wrenching take on “I Can’t Make You Love Me” sits as the #1 Jazz Single, with tracks “Take Love Easy”, “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” and “My One and Only Love” also charting in the Top 10. Fresh off over a year of sold-out concerts across America, Take Love Easy, the follow-up to her 2008 Juno Award-winning Make Someone Happy, will be released in the U.S. on June 2, 2009.

With her revered ability to personalize both traditional and new pop, jazz and even rock standards, Sophie Milman delivers a breathtaking portrait of an artist coming of age while breaking new musical boundaries. With an inimitable instrument that has been described as “drawn butter and warm honey” (Jazz Times), her soulful renditions of modern classics are each executed with the utmost originality, all distinctively Sophie. In the words of the Los Angeles Times, “Not the next Ella or Sarah, but the first Sophie Milman. One of a kind.”

Take Love Easy features Sophie’s inventive interpretations of 13 (with two bonus tracks) eclectic favorites and new classics by songwriters from Duke Ellington and Cole Porter, to Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon, creating an album that captures love in all its disguises. On the title track, Milman personifies the lyrics “easy breezy,” set to a simple plucking bass line and rack toms. One of Take Love Easy’s most surprising selections is “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” made famous by Bonnie Raitt, where Sophie manages to seamlessly mesh gorgeous jazz progressions with a pop ballad sound. She once again displays her prowess for arranging across genres, geniusly demonstrated on Paul Simon’s “Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover,” set to a jamming Cuban salsa ending with an acrobatic scat. Milman’s haunting version of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” sizzles with a driving arrangement hinting of both acid jazz and fusion while her “Stunning …throaty, emotional alto” (Seattle Times) swings and soars through the classic “Love For Sale.”

2007’s Make Someone Happy put Sophie Milman on the map in the U.S., and more than lived up to its title: it topped the iTunes jazz charts in both the U.S. and Canada for months, cracked the Top 5 on the Billboard jazz chart, and garnered the 2008 Juno Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year. She has shared the stage with music legends including The Neville Brothers, Chick Corea, Chris Botti and Jesse Cook, and has dozens of accolades from media around the world.

Take Love Easy was produced by Juno Award-winning producer Steve MacKinnon, (Marc Johnson, Natalie Cole), and features an all star band: Paul Shrofel (piano/Fender Rhodes), Rob Piltch (guitar), Kieran Overs (bass), and Mark McLean (drums), with special guests Wessell “Warmdaddy” Anderson (Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra), Guido Basso, P.J. Perry, Michael Kaeshammer, and Robi Botos. Take Love Easy will wow jazz fans and prove to mainstream music lovers why Downbeat proclaimed, “She is undeniably easy on the ears….she captivates.”

www.sophiemilman.com