WeFreeStrings, Melanie Dyer - Love in the Form of Sacred Outrage (2022)

This is the second album by WeFreeStrings, which was founded in 2011. Leader Melanie Dyer (not to be confused with the Australian country-pop songwriter of the same name) is a jazz viola player and composer based in New York City who currently performs with the Sun Ra Arkestra, Dead Lecturers, Heroes Are Gang Leaders, Baba Andrew Lamb, Gwen Laster’s New Muse 4tet, William Parker, Tomeka Reid Stringtet, Janice Lowe/Tyehimbe Jess Millie & Christina project, and Patricia Nicholson’s Women with an Axe to Grind. She’s played and/or recorded with Henry Grimes, Makanda Ken McIntyre’s Contemporary African American Composers’ Orchestra, Tulivu Donna Cumberbatch, Nona Hendryx, Joe Bonner, Reggie Workman, Howard Johnson, David Haney, and many other notable musicians.
She trained with William Lincer (Principal Violist, New York Philharmonic), Lee Yeingst (Principal Violist, Colorado Symphony Orchestra), John Jake Kella (NY Metropolitan Opera) and Naomi Fellows (Colorado Symphony Orchestra); and studied viola performance at the LaMont School of Music/University of Denver.

Press Quotes: "...an outstanding modernist violist." Anthony Barnett, The Strad

Personnel on tracks 1 & 4: Charles Burnham, violin; Gwen Laster, violin; Melanie Dyer, viola; Alexander Waterman, cello; Ken Filiano, bass; Michael Wimberly, drums
Personnel on tracks 2 & 3: Melanie Dyer, viola, Gwen Laster, violin; Ken Filiano, bass.
Liner Notes: William Parker
Mixing & Mastering: Alexander Waterman
Sound Engineer: Jon Rosenberg
Recorded by Rene Pierre Allain on June 22 & 23, 2021 at Scholes Street Studio (Brooklyn, NY)



Tracklist:
1.01 - WeFreeStrings - Baraka Suite (25:44)
1.02 - WeFreeStrings - Love in the Form of Sacred Outrage [for Fannie Lou Hamer] (4:10)
1.03 - WeFreeStrings - Pretty Flowers (9:18)
1.04 - WeFreeStrings - Propagating the Same Type of Madness, that uh... [for Fred Hampton] (7:23)