Orlando jazz maestro Gerald Law II releases zeitgeisty new album ‘Who We Are’

We’re living in a cesspool boiling over with rage, animus, anxiety and despair, somewhere between 1984 and Idiocracy. The only measurable happiness around right now is a kind laced with hate. Oh, what a fucking time to be alive. Is there even a place for peace, or even hope, anymore? It’s a good existential question, one that Orlando jazz musician Gerald Law II looks to answer with his brand-new album. 

The Who We Are LP first took form in 2020. In the throes of a biblically bad year with the compounding effect of a worldwide pandemic and the dystopian wreckage from Trump’s first term, Law began writing. From a grim American reality marked by police killings of Black people like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, the album would become a channel, a statement and, hopefully, a salve.

Now it’s finally seeing release, when we find ourselves back in the same Orwellian mire that’s only gotten more septic this time around. 

“Unfortunately, the messaging is still as relevant [in 2025] as it was in 2020, or in 2012, or in the 1950s,” Law says.

Here in the Great Repression where the grapes of wrath are swelling to a new brink, a blistering diatribe would be reasonable, expected even. Instead, Law puts the universal ahead of the personal, opting more for messages of connection and solidarity. “Yes, there is pain expressed in this album,” he says. “But there is also hope, reflection and love for others.”

In the face of the ugliest hysteria that America’s seen in generations, Who We Are steps with grace and gravity. Although occasionally lined with R&B and soul, Law leans deeply into his jazz roots here. There are extended lyrical passages (“Family,” “Good Friend”). But mostly, the lyrics are poignantly, poetically brief or even absent altogether, as if acknowledging that words can only go so far and that the music would be the connective essence that’ll ultimately bring us home. 

Still, the words herein are imbued with powerful purpose, coming from many voices both sung and spoken. Even in the song titles — “Human,” “Mothers,” “Fathers,” “Sons,” “Daughters,” “Sisters,” “Brothers,” “Family,” “Good Friend” —the words focus on humanity. They stand blunt and simple, like monolithic truths in a blurred, messy world.

In contrast, the arrangements are a lush jazz tapestry of brass (trumpet, saxophone, trombone), keys (piano, organ, keyboards), strings (violin, viola, cello, guitar, bass) and percussion (drums, vibraphone). Even when troubled like on the cinematic “American Black,” the music never loses its studious dignity. Who We Are stands tall and poised in the precarious storm, a beacon that’s both a mirror and an antidote for the zeitgeist. It’s a noble MLK-esque stance in decidedly Malcolm X times. Law’s path is the righteous one, of course. Will it prevail in this age? I’m not sure. But I hope he’s right.

Who We Are is a socio-personal opus that proves there are few better young exemplars of Black excellence in Orlando than Gerald Law II. The album now streams everywhere and tops TLU’s Spotify playlist, and the release concert next week is at Judson’s Live (7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, $29.21-$41). 

Subscribe to Orlando Weekly newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Bluesky | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

This article appears in Sept. 3-9, 2025.