Sophie's novel choice

You could almost hear Sophie Milman's parents cringe in the background.

After all, they had moved from Russia to Israel and then to Canada to find a better life for their children. Sophie is finishing her degree in commerce at University of Toronto but her job as a jazz singer has cut into her schoolwork.

If Milman were to write a college paper about the potential to make a living in jazz, just what would she say?

"I don't think I would write that kind of paper," said Milman, who performs Monday and Tuesday at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. "For somebody who is very rational and very logical, it's sort of weird that I've gone into jazz singing, which is one of the least lucrative things you could be doing with yourself. But I just love it."

What do her parents think?

"Because of the whole immigrant thing, they were very cautious about this career, even though they were encouraging me," she said recently from Toronto, where last month she was a headliner at prestigious Massey Hall. "They were afraid it wasn't going to work out. There's always this paranoia among immigrants that their kids won't make money or they won't be successful. So it was a real amazing moment [at Massey] for my parents."

Even before the Massey triumph, it was hard to argue with sales of nearly 100,000 copies of Milman's self-titled 2004 CD, which was big in Japan and in Canada.

"So everything that's happened so far has really, really exceeded my expectations," she continued. "I generally believe in gradual, solid growth."

Not that the hot young chanteuse is complaining about the glowing reviews of her 2007 CD, "Make Someone Happy." The Los Angeles Times called her "one of a kind." Jazz Times magazine trumpeted: "Milman jumps to the front of the post-Diana Krall pack of jazz singers who are as wise and witty as they are musically astute."

At 24, Milman is all of the above as well as earnest and self-critical. She has high standards for her music and her studies.

"It's not enough for me just to pass; I need to get a good grade and actually learn something," she said of school, where she has cut back to part-time. "I'm a Type A personality, so I have to do well in everything I try."

While she's intellectual at school, she's more intuitive when it comes to singing.

Unlike many jazz singers, she doesn't approach the genre from a blues or gospel background. "I didn't grow up in the church or learning jazz in universities the way other people are doing," she explained. "My idea of jazz is the synthesis of all the stuff I listened to growing up -- Mahalia Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Nancy Wilson, Stevie Wonder -- with the Eastern European and sometimes Israeli sounds that appear in my voice."

Shy, neurotic kid

When the Milman family fled to Israel from Ofa, Russia, because of anti-Semitism when Sophie was 7, they brought along a couch, a table, some paintings and her dad's collection of vinyl jazz, R&B and gospel albums. After growing up with dark, serious Russian music, the youngster discovered North American sounds in Israel.

"When my dad put on Mahalia Jackson, my initial reaction was 'Oh, my God, turn it off. I can't handle the power of her voice,'" Milman recalled. "But upon my second listening, I fell in love with it. It moved me. When I hear her voice, that is vocal perfection."

At the urging of her schoolteacher, Sophie, then 11, entered a singing contest and beat out thousands of kids, winning one of 10 slots performing adult pop songs on a tour of Israel. But the performances made her uncomfortable.

When Sophie was 16, her parents, fearful of all the bombings in Israel, moved the family to Toronto, seeking a better life. On the first day at school, Sophie walked into music class where the students were learning a gospel song and she instantly reconnected with singing.

In Canada, the Milmans have prospered. Sophie's father is an engineer, her mother a high school teacher, her 14-year-old brother a student. One evening, Sophie got invited onstage to sing two songs on "Real Divas" night at a Toronto nightspot and, after playing only three gigs, she signed a recording contract.

Ethnic repertoire

Her material on "Make Someone Happy" reflects her diverse heritage. For Canada, there's a reading of the rock hit "Undun" by the Guess Who. For Israel, there's "Eli Eli" by Hannah Senesh. And for Russia, there's "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" from "Fiddler on the Roof." Each is given a distinctively jazzy interpretation.

Milman's own anthem, however, is a grown-up treatment of the Kermit the Frog favorite "(It's Not Easy) Bein' Green."

At the Dakota, Milman will celebrate her third anniversary of the first date with her beau, lawyer Casey Chisick. She'll dedicate a song to him.

"My boyfriend and I were set up by a modern-day Jewish yenta in the form of a jazz lawyer piano player," Milman said. "So it was really cute when I started singing 'Matchmaker, Matchmaker.'"

A song for her boyfriend, one for Canada, one for Israel. And for her parents?

"Make Someone Happy," of course.