Pianist Johanna Summer and saxophonist Jakob Manz are two young leading lights of the German jazz scene, and this album featuring them in a duo setting shows us why. The many varied pleasures of this album come and go in under 40 minutes, its 11 tracks encompassing romantic classical lyric pieces, romping Latin workouts, beguiling folky numbers, time signature-shifting modern jazz and even pop-like ballads.
There is abundant mutual empathy between these two musicians. Of his musical partner here, Manz says in the liner notes: “Whenever Johanna improvises, something happens that you’re not expecting…it often seems as if it’s been composed, but in fact it’s different each time.” Indeed, Summer’s playing is devoid of cliché, each solo painting a fresh picture. But it is in her accompanying of Manz that her gifts stand out most, drawing on a rich repertoire of rhythmic, harmonic and stylistic language to create the emotional backdrop of each piece.
For his part, Manz (only 23 years old), brings youthful drive and an attractive tone on alto saxophone, showing human-like vulnerability in its upper register and soulful expressiveness in its mid range (he cites David Sanborn as an influence). He even switches instruments on ‘The Turmoil’ to show off his badass recorder chops.
While there is plenty of evidence of each musician’s virtuosity, this is by no means a blowing session; none of the tracks here exceed four and a half minutes, following the advice often given to public speakers to ‘be brief, be brilliant and be gone’. As one would expect from the ACT label, the whole album has been beautifully recorded (by Emanuel Uch). A highly enjoyable listen.
Cameo is released on 7 February
