Sonya Heller

  She is often compared to the greatest folk, jazz and American blues singer-songwriters and there is absolutely no mistake when it comes to Sonya Heller: this singer, whose feet are rooted in New York but whose heart frequently sails toward Paris, is one of the great ladies of music, one of those definitely irresistible divas we come across only too seldom. Born into a family of musicians, Sonya learned to play the guitar as a teenager while continuing to train her voice. After writing the music of the documentary “Sisters In Resistance” in 2001, she produced her first album in 2006, “Fourth Floor”, that was one of the greatest hits on French community radios and led to “Psalms of Ra” which she recorded as a soloist with composer Jim Berenholtz. Through concerts and festivals, Sonya Heller continues to charm both sides of the Atlantic with her delectable voice. She returns to us with her long awaited second album. For the girl from “West Eleventh Street”, time has come to pursue her art of seduction!She possesses in her deepest being this sense of groove that leads her to breathe life into her songs, this very particular quality that she shares with singers like Norah Jones or Joni Mitchell and that make the music she composes and sings impossible to resist. A guitar or a piano to accompany Sonya’s smooth voice is often all that would be needed to produce something amazingly sensual, but instead of being content with simplicity and a certain form of sobriety, the diva graces us with finely chiseled arrangements featuring here a steel guitar, there a harmonica or a bass, and elsewhere percussions. Her songs are an invitation to contemplation and whether they are more folk or more jazz, it is always with the same wonder that we experience the purring, the roaring, the vocalizing or simply the singing of an artist who invariably finds the perfect harmony between her voice, alternately black and white, and her tunes. From “Justine” to “Without You”, we travel through the plains of the American West, then dive into New York’s jazz clubs, each track leading us to discover songs that are engaging or touching or both, such as “I Still Want You”, “Woodstock”, “Love Comes Down To Love”, “Songlines”, and the French exception of the album, “Sur le pont” that French audiences will appreciate at its true value. We didn't expect any less from Sonya Heller and as a generous woman, she simply offers us the ideal album. Bravo!