FOLLOW THE LAW

Catching up with prolific Orlando jazz musician Gerald Law II

BY MATTHEW MOYER

You’d be forgiven for not being able to keep up with the levels of productivity and creativity sustained by Orlando percussionist and composer Gerald Law II over the last couple of years.

Aside from leading his band, the Clutch, through a number of high-profile gigs and recordings, he gave himself a crash course in the Sunhouse sensory percussion system and proceeded to release several albums using this technology, worked with his brothers Joel and Jamiel on the multimedia project Who We Are, and released a string of intimate home-brewed albums dedicated to family in the From G. To You series.

Later this week, Law leads the Clutch back on stage at Timucua, and he’s already enthusing to Orlando Weekly about two new pieces he plans to debut.

“‘Voices’ speaks from the perspective of voices of our past, present and future that all see the world from different points of view. This show is the first time that I have arranged music for strings and we’ll hear them right out of the gate. This is also the first show that will feature a group of background vocalists,” says Law.

“The other tune is the title track of the project, Who We Are I wrote the initial idea of this song almost a year ago but it was my friend, Arthur Brown, who really breathed life into it.”

Besides the guest musicians, the heart of the night’s music comes from the creative telepathy between Law and the Clutch.

For Law, the key is that personal connections are inextricably linked to musical collaboration.

“I say often that the people I share the band stand with are clutch in my life outside of music as well,” says Law. “Once a part of The Clutch, you’re always a part.” music@orlandoweekly.com

To hear a different side of Law ahead of Friday’s show, may we suggest you start out with the third volume of From G. To You on Bandcamp? The album is dedicated to his son and is a series of purposeful (and personal) experiments with the sensory percussion kit.

“This album was intended to be a collection of lullabies for our newborn son to sleep with at night,” says Law. “This software gave me the ability to sample my cello and combine it with drum set playing in a way I had not heard before.” And if that’s not enough, the fourth volume, dedicated to Law’s daughter, just dropped a few days ago. Lullabies from a performer you will never catch snoozing.