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TORONTO - Sophie Milman is in a happy place right now. And well she should be. The jazz singer's second album, Make Someone Happy, won her a Juno Award last year and broke into the competitive U.S. market.

Now she's about to release a new CD, Take Love Easy, go on tour and get married in August.

"My whole career surprises me," the Russian-born Toronto singer says. "I never expected this kind of success."

Milman's 2004 debut recording was also nominated for a Juno, but she lost to Diana Krall. "If Diana's nominated, she wins by default," Milman jokes. Last year, though, Krall wasn't nominated, and Milman beat Holly Cole and Deborah Cox, among others, for vocal jazz album of the year.

Looking back, her experience at the Junos in Calgary was surreal, she says. "I flew to Calgary from Colorado. They lost my luggage and I had to go shopping for a new dress, so I was hoping that the day would at least end well," she recalls.

She says she was shocked when she won. "I was nervous and had knots in my stomach all day. I didn't even hear my name being mentioned. I saw the presenter's lips move and saw my picture on the screen - I was, 'Oh, my God!'"

What followed was a page that could have come from Bridget Jones's Diary.

"I had bought these ridiculous seven-inch heels, and I went up on stage in the most graceless way imaginable."

After her speech, Milman was supposed to go backstage for photos and press.

"I was so shocked that I went back to my table," she says, laughing. "And this woman from the  Juno committee came up and said to me that I had to give the award back to her [to go backstage] and  I thought, 'Back off! This is mine!'"

But that's all in the past now, as Milman gets ready to promote Take Love Easy, which is to be released in Canada on May 5.

"It's like having a baby," she says of  the work that went into her latest project. "You work so hard on something from recording to mixing to the artwork."

Work began last August. "We only [just] finished the mixing and final artwork. It's a long process. But I am proud and happy with the result."

Milman's song selection is always eclectic. Take Love Easy consists of 13 songs, both traditional jazz fare from Cole Porter and Duke Ellington to her own take on modern songs by Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon. Overall, it's a lot lighter  and easier to get into than her last outing, which was a lot more melancholic. Take Love Easy sounds very sharp and her vocals seem crisp, more confident and sophisticated.

"I think this is more forward looking," she says. "It's more modern sounding, both musically and lyrically. Yet, I think it's more legitimate jazz than before. There's more improvisation - both on my part and the band."

The CD was produced by Steven MacKinnon and features appearances from top musicians Wessell (Warmdaddy) Anderson, Michael Kaeshammer and Robi Botos.

"It's funny because my sound doesn't reflect who I'm influenced by and I wanted to go for a more 'rootsy' sound on this album. But what we ended up with is definitely not roots and definitely not big-band happy. It's somewhere in between."

Although she doesn't consciously look for a theme when choosing songs, she concedes that "love" forms a huge part, conceptually, of this album. (Seven of the 13 songs have the word "love" in the title.)

But, she says, she doesn't subscribe to the Hollywood notion of love, and the songs ride the wave of emotions, high and low.

"Love is not simple. It's very complicated. There's a world of emotions in relationships." She says Love For Sale and I Concentrate on You try to reflect that. "But most of the songs are quite positive. They come from a happy place, which I'm in right now."

Among the contemporary songs that Milman has included is her special take on Bruce Springsteen's I'm On Fire.

"Bruce is incredibly manly," she says. "His songs are full of testosterone, so I wasn't sure how I could sing it as a woman. We slowed it down quite a bit."

The result works quite well, as does her take on 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.

"That song really struck a chord with me, and I wanted to do it for a long time. I love the sarcasm and the humour in it. The problem is, the original is so incredible and perfect - how can you top that?

"We kept the verses very true to the original but gave the chorus a very Afro-Cuban feel."

On this song, Milman also experiments with scatting for the first time, a vocal improvisation style made famous by Ella Fitzgerald, on this song.

Until they sat down in the studio, they had no idea how the song would work out. But once Hungarian-born pianist Botos got his hands on it, "it all came to life," she says.

Take Love Easy should be a shoo-in for another Juno Award, even if Krall is nominated this time. Until then, Milman will hit the road in the United States and Japan before returning to Toronto, probably in September, after she takes a short break to get married.

You can listen to Take Love Easy at www.sophiemilman.com and sample a track entitled My Heart Belongs to Daddy from her second album here: