Jakob Manz: Supernova: Live At Alte Oper Frankfurt

Twenty-five-year-old German saxophonist Jakob Manz’s live album “Supernova”, recorded in front of 2,600 listeners in the Grand Hall of Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, makes clear: today’s jazz generation can still produce stars capable of captivating a large audience. At the same time, it proves that contemporary jazz from Germany can be exhilarating without sacrificing musical complexity or intensity. Above all, the album documents Jakob Manz’s extraordinary talent. Born in this century, he already possesses remarkable assurance and a strong sense of artistic identity – as well as the compelling ability to rise to the biggest occasions. And the big occasion this certainly was. The concert on 27 January 2026 was the main event during Manz’s period as the youngest ever Artist-in-Residence at Frankfurt’s Alte Oper. The season he had in that role was a major success, with every single one of the events sold out, including this one, a programme specially constructed for the night. What unites the remarkably varied programme of this extraordinary evening is a spirit of openness, authenticity and deep gratitude: it is all about Manz connecting with music he loves, with musicians who have inspired and shaped him, and about making a tangible rapport with audiences. The listener can feel the intimacy, the way he ‘shrinks the room’ when he steps into the limelight as soloist in a duo with Michael Wollny. It is a blessing that their affecting and beautiful live performance of Horace Silver’s “Peace” has been preserved. It is one highlight among many on this album. He also builds effective and easy collaborations with bassist Kinga Głyk, and with Nils Landgren whom he acknowledges as having inspired him deeply. The roster of guests whom Manz invited to appear at the show is highly impressive. The album has two wonderful examples of Manz’s craft working with singers, as he takes a solo spot during songs by two of Germany’s big stars and makes a big impact (very differently) each time: he lifts the roof with intensity in Max Mutzke’s “Welt Hinter Glas”, and finds infinite tenderness in Sarah Connor’s “Ich Wünsch Dir” . That superb way of working with the singers is a trait which Manz has in common with one of his great heroes, saxophonist David Sanborn (1945-2024), whom Manz remembers specifically and in gratitude with a quote from Sanborn’s tune „Butterfat”: it is the first sound we hear on the opening track, “Eyes of Crystals”. A review of the concert in the Frankfurter Rundschau loved the idea of Jakob Manz’s Supernova being “an exploding star... a sun bursting open.” This album confirms that kind of radiance; indeed it only brings good news, in that it confirms the hope and the expectation that, all being well, Jakob Manz is going to be brightening the sky of the music scene for many decades to come.