Jakob Manz

You have to at least tap your toes along to saxophonist Jakob Manz, who knows how to inspire an audience. Namely, by “holding a high note for a long time, and then you signal its end, but it goes on quietly” as the jazz musician joked on ZDF heute journal. Born in Baden-Württemberg in 2001, Manz first learned to play the drums and a little later the recorder. He received his first saxophone lessons in 2012. And even before he started his jazz studies at the Cologne University of Music, he had already founded his internationally successful band, The Jakob Manz Project. Manz is not only a member of a quartet, however: he is also a soloist. Since 2019, he has received numerous distinctions and was recently nominated for the German Jazz Award. He has also worked with such greats as multiple-Grammy winner Randy Brecker and singer Sarah Connor, as well as with Johanna Summer, the outstanding jazz pianist who has thrilled Lucerne audiences in every edition to date of Igor Levit’s Piano Fest. Manz has recorded a duo album with her and will present a jazz program to die for full of musical “delicacies,” surprises, and improvisations.