Zach Mayer / Saxophone Prayers

I have come to see the saxophone as the younger brother of the pipe organ. It is therefore especially fitting to add this album of High Holiday tunes, played by the extraordinary Zach Mayer, to the instrumental repertoire to get us into the season of the High Holidays.

The album opens, as Yom Kippur opens, with a traditional rendition of "Kol Nidre." Every year, we linger as long as possible over our pre-fast meal, then rush to the synagogue to find parking and to get into the sanctuary for the solemn beginning of the day of fasting. As Mayer plays the tune here, it is both a solemn song, but also one of the promise of turning, of our repentence being accepted as we move on from the next 25 hours of prayer, renewed.

The transition to a very cheerful, jazzed up "Avinu Malkeinu" (arrangement inspired by Frank London), and the following jazzy "High Holiday Nigun" are amazing and a perfect contrast—owing more to rock 'n' roll than to the pipe organ I mentioned earlier. With a "Chatzi Kaddish" attributed to Mayer's stepfather, Rabbi Sruli Dresdner, we get a taste of the clarinetist's (Sruli's) human voice, davenning. Mayer's own "Aneini" catches the tone of the day, and makes a perfect bookend as the recording comes to an end.

Bring on the holidays. I am ready.

Reviewed by Ari Davidow, 31-Aug-2026

Songlist

1. Kol Nidre (trad, learned from my Grandpa, Chazzan Sol Weintraub) 10:29
2. Avinu Malkeinu (inspired by Frank London) 4:50
3. High Holiday Nigun (said to be one of the oldest known melodies in the Askkenazi Jewish world.) 5:34
4. Chatzi Kaddish (this is based on the version I learned from my stepfather Rabbi Sruli Dresdner. You don't want to miss him sing it live at Temple Shalom in Auburn Maine!) 5:12
5. Aneini (An original melody. "Aneini, aneini, aneini, be'emet yishekha.") 7:22