{"product_id":"jeff-parker-eta-ivtet-happy-today","title":"Jeff Parker ETA IVtet - Happy Today","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProduct Description:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHappy Today\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e the third album from guitarist\/bandleader \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJeff Parker\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’s long-running \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eETA IVtet\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, was recorded live at \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLodge Room\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e in Los Angeles on August 20, 2025. This fresh entry into the IVtet’s catalog captures Parker and the band – including drummer \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJay Bellerose\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, bassist \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnna Butterss\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and saxophonist \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJosh Johnson\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e – on record outside of the now-shuttered Highland Park micro-club ETA for the first time. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe performance also captures a distinctly joyful night of togetherness set against the backdrop of dark times. “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e2025 was a very difficult year for me and my family,” Parker says. “Dealing with being displaced from the Eaton fires for eight months, and the kind of toll that that instability took on my family’s mental health and general outlook, coupled with Donald Trump being back in office and basically making life miserable for everyone… There was a lot of sadness and despair. But feeling the sense of community that we created with our concert, and later hearing the recording, seeing the beautiful footage that had been shot and the photographs of such joy to be back in that space and to be making music again: It was a very happy moment. So I called the record \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHappy Today\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. It’s meant to be a statement of joy.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThat joy and camaraderie found in communal space seems to be a major catalyst for the ETA IVtet’s music. The band’s audience is, somehow, an essential part of the formula. Case in point: the show at Lodge Room was actually meant to be the cherry on top of a weekend of studio sessions by the band. Those sessions were intended to be the next album released by the group, its first ever studio record. Upon listening back, though, it was clear to Parker that the Lodge Room performance was the recording that shined brightest and felt most true to the band’s spirit, harkening back to the weekly session the four musicians held at ETA for so many years.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eETA was undoubtedly more than just the namesake of the band. Part laboratory, part low-stakes proving ground, it’s where the language of the IVtet’s sound percolated and coalesced over the course of an almost mythical seven-year-long Monday night residency that yielded two critically-acclaimed records—2022’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and 2024’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Way Out of Easy\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—and an instantly recognizable \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003egroup \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003esound.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHappy Today\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is that sound—the IVtet's signature syntax built around long-form, minimalist improvisation—expanding confidently into a larger space while creating the same hypnotizing, deeply-tuned listening effect on visibly enraptured audiences. The album contains two sidelong pieces recorded as the band performed in the round at Lodge Room, surrounded by an audience of 400 or so deep listeners. (The venue, appropriately enough, sits on the same street and just a few hundred feet away from the storefront that used to be ETA.) \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe drastic change in venue size, and this document in general, is representative of an expanding demand to experience this band live that has been surging for years, starting with the release of their debut album \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMondays\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. For the subsequent, final year that ETA was open, there would typically be a line down the block on Monday evenings, with far more people trying to catch the show than the club could hold. Even if you \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ecould\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e get inside the building, given the limited capacity, the IVtet was a difficult band to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eactually see\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e play. Couple that with the fact that before the closure of the club in December 2023, the IVtet had never played outside of Los Angeles. Access to the live experience had been extremely limited, and that has seemed to feed a sense of mystery and allure around the band’s music for the many fans of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMondays\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Way Out of Easy\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn paper, the IVtet’s growing audience is something of a conundrum. After all, minimal longform improvisation is likely the precise antithesis of streaming-centered content culture. Despite that, at the show that produced \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHappy Today\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, as with any IVtet show, the audience willingly settles into and accepts the band’s pace as they iron out a story which digs deeply into every facet of an idea before investigating a new one. Here the attention economy feels lightyears away, the crowd instead surrendering to that old and very human penchant for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003elistening\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. With open ears, the crowd stands ready for a big yarn, a long tale, and from the jump there seems to be a trust between performer and audience that mimics the trust between the musicians as they move from detail to detail. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“The band isn't afraid to explore static spaces,” says Parker. “It seems like the thing is to stay on one idea for a while. Really, for a long time. To kind of exhaust it. And then one person shifts and then the thing moves together.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Everybody is constantly dropping crumbs and you can take them or you can leave them,” agrees Bellerose. “There are these little hints, these little moments, and everybody's aware of them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“When it \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e time to change, it can change \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003every quickly\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e,” says Butterss. “If someone suggests a new idea, it can flip in an instant. Everyone's constantly ready to go with it if the moment calls for it.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLike Swimwear\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e,” the side-length opener of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHappy Today\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, contains a quintessential example of this distinct IVtet move. The track gets off the ground slowly but deliberately, ramping up tension over the course of its first ten minutes without a moment of harmonic dissonance. The band, rather, steadily pulls at the corners of the rhythm. Here each member steps forward and backward in the sonic space to build a gleefully disorienting group cadence, where the repetitions of the individual overlap in such a trancelike way that even soloistic breaks from Parker’s electric guitar or Johnson’s effected alto sax never manage to snap the tension wire. Bellerose works deep into the rhythmic fascia, employing all manner of auxiliary percussion—strewn across his kit, tucked into his shoe, or wrapped around his legs—all without a hint of novelty. Every micro-choice comes from a place of both curiosity and confidence.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnd then the shift: just as the thing is about to come unglued Bellerose opts into a smooth, low-register downbeat groove that Butterss has been auditioning for the previous minute or so. Parker swiftly kicks into an organ-like drone while Johnson and Butterss stay the course. It’s a series of decisions that could go any number of ways depending on the night, like running water pushing into fresh geography, moving from tributary to mainstream, past the levee and into the floodplain. There is no set path; if it went a different direction it would still be the cumulative result of the same water flowing. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThat is to say that there are no hard and fast rules to what the IVtet does. Defining the music, in fact, is something that the band takes special care not to do. Living in that mystery, it seems, helps to keep the path open, cleared to push into new and satisfying territory.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“For me, the thing to protect is just where it started from, which was freedom and openness,” says Bellerose. “In the early days of the band Jeff was recognizing how we were all communicating within the structure of playing standards. He's one of the greatest producers I've ever worked with because he has this vision. And a big part of producing is casting—putting the right people in the room. So these shifts, they're completely natural within these improvised pieces that we do because the foundation was there and Jeff knew it. He had already noticed the communication within the band, but wanted to really push it further.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe key to Parker’s push lies in the generosity to step back, to allow each member an equal voice, and to de-center himself. What we hear on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHappy Today\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is an egalitarian group sound by design, curious and intuitive. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Everybody's listening in a way where it's not always like ‘I'm going to go with you’,” says Johnson. “But it's always ‘I hear you’. And sometimes it's ‘I hear you and I'm going to stay here and allow the tension of these two things to exist for a while before \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003emaybe\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e joining you.’ But the thing that's cool is that everybody’s hearing it. Because of the time that we've spent together there’s a maturity to the listening—a very special version of deep listening.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“The number of times that we've talked about the music is \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eso few\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e compared to the years and years of playing,” Johnson continues. “I think that's one of the really beautiful things about the band—how organically the way that we play together has come about and evolved over time. Definitely on brand for the music that the band makes too. Slowly evolving, long form development.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“I learned how to improvise \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ein this band\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e,” reveals Butterss, astonishingly. “I didn't really play improvised music before. So my whole approach to improvisation has been shaped by playing with Jeff, Jay, and Josh. It\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e a band and it has its own language. I think you could drop the needle on any of the recordings and people would be able to say ‘that's the quartet.’ It's very distinctive and it's developed very organically. We have \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003enever\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e talked about it, I don't think.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThat's\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e our band,” says Parker of “Like Swimwear,” almost with an outsider’s sense of fascination at the recording. He seems to feel the same enchantment and surprise that the audience does while listening, despite being a primary part of the process. “\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThat's it\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. I mean, that's what the ETA Quartet does.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt’s a blessing for this band to be so expertly documented in its naturally public, live context. The two sidelong improvisations from Lodge Room that make up \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHappy Today\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, as with the recordings that made up the IVtet’s first two albums, are beautifully rendered by engineer \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBryce Gonzales\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—recorded and mixed live, direct to a Nagra tape machine utilizing a compact outboard rig that he built himself, specifically to record this band. Much like the thumbprint originality coming from the players themselves, Gonzales’ capture of the music is its own signature, his mixes a form of sound improvisation themselves.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA major addition to this particular presentation is the full album length film by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCharlie Weinmann\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, documenting the band's performance of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHappy Today\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e at Lodge Room, which will be released in tandem with the album. A shadow-laden, almost noirlike capture of the band in its full sprawling glory, Weinmann’s camera makes \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethe joyful reality of seeing the IVtet at work widely accessible for the first time. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWith \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHappy Today\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e the reach of Parker’s IVtet extends further than ever before, but the essential formula, if there is one, remains the same. The anchor seems to be in variations on an almost alchemical communication—a feeling of connection between band members, sure, but also between the band and the audience. It’s an ongoing trust exercise, born organically in the corner of a small room in Los Angeles and flowing outward at exactly its own natural pace. It’s social music with a clear ability to move those willing to listen. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHappy Today\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is an invitation to become part of the exchange and experience the joy of deep listening.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAll compositions by The ETA IVtet:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJay Bellerose - Drums and Percussion\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnna Butterss - Acoustic Bass\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJosh Johnson - Alto Saxophone with Electronics\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJeff Parker -  Electric Guitar with Electronics\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLive recording by Bryce Gonzales.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlbum photography by David Haskell.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlbum layout and design by Aaron Lowell Denton.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Bryce and Highland Dynamics, Scottie, David, Dave, Hippo, Jocelyn and Ashley at IARC, David Bither and staff at Nonesuch Records, Chris, Tina and Ryan at Big Fish, David Haskell, and the wondrous audience and staff at Lodge Room.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eF@#K ICE. Power To The People.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll rights Reserved\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"International Anthem","offers":[{"title":"IARC0109 LP - Limited Edition Color Vinyl","offer_id":52131163734290,"sku":"IARC0109LPI","price":29.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"IARC0109 LP - Classic Black Vinyl","offer_id":52131163767058,"sku":"IARC0109LP","price":25.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"IARC0109 CD - Compact Disc","offer_id":52131163799826,"sku":"IARC0109CD","price":12.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"IARC0109 - Digital Download","offer_id":52131163832594,"sku":"IARC0109","price":7.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0751\/6989\/0578\/files\/a0999850971_10.jpg?v=1773940887","url":"https:\/\/shop.intlanthem.com\/products\/jeff-parker-eta-ivtet-happy-today","provider":"International Anthem","version":"1.0","type":"link"}