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New release - Winter in california
ZAMRU
Winter in California, Zach Mayer’s third full-length album, is a new collection of healing melodies that calm Mayer’s own mind and heart whenever he listens to them. Featuring only his voice and the magical Zimbabwean instrument called the mbira, Mayer weaves melodies together that are spirited and joyous, as well as contemplative and soul-stirring. Each note is an expression of his inner musical mind, as he composed the album during his daily meditations in a beautiful flowering garden in Los Angeles, complete with bougainvillea, hummingbirds and wandering doves. When setting out to compose and record Winter in California, Mayer said, “I wanted to create the album that I would listen to whenever I’d need to calm down, enter into stillness, or just to feel happy. Maybe this album will have the same effect on you!”
Released on February 4th, 2022.
Zamru is the second solo work of Zach Mayer. It was recorded entirely during quarantine in Zach's own living room (and coat closet) in Boston, Massachusetts. This album is a full rendering of his inner musical mind, as each note on every instrument was played by him alone, including soprano and baritone saxophones, piano, kanjira drum, harmonium, keyboard and vocal harmonies.
Zach composed each of Zamru’s melodies in the morning, during his daily outdoor meditation practice in the park by his home. He felt a unique connective spark while channeling these songs into their current form, and can feel that same spark again whenever he sings them. May you too, feel the joyous spark of calm delight that is embedded in each of these melodies.
Modeh Ani
Zach Mayer is one of today's few young composers of nigunim, spiritual wordless melodies rooted in Hasidic Jewish Tradition. Dating back to the 1750s, the great Hasidic masters would compose nigunim and sing them in community as a means of elevating the soul--using the rising melodic phrases as a scaffolding structure that mirrors a person's spiritual ascent. While nigunim are traditionally restricted to only Jewish male singers, Mayer's melodies are open to everyone-- modern and easy to sing, yet authentically rooted in this powerful tradition.
Mayer's interest in nigunim grew as he experienced their power to bring people together peaceably in song. At a young age, he sat beside his stepfather Rabbi Sruli Dresdner who facilitated a Tish, a candle-lit gathering of over 100 people singing nigunim around a large table, each year at the KlezKanada music festival in Lantier, QC. The music was transcendent, lasting late into the night with dancing on the table.
This year, Mayer released an album of original nigunim and new melodies for traditional Hebrew texts. Entitled Modeh Ani, the album features Mayer's singing and saxophone playing joined by some of today's most accomplished Jewish musicians, including Frank London, Michael Alpert, Deborah Strauss and Richie Barshay. Mayer says, "Modeh Ani is music meant for singing with community. I want to share melodies that are accessible--that can speak to everyone, through the universal language of music."
