Jeff Parker ETA IVtet

Jeff Parker is one of the most distinctive and curious guitarists of the last several decades, his tone as singular as his playing is flexible; his ETA IVtet, an accidental band of sorts, is his most revelatory improvisational vehicle yet. A child of the South and his father’s jazz and hip-hop records, Parker moved to Chicago after dropping out of Berklee in the late ’80s; he rapidly enlisted in the city’s improvisational scene, eventually accepting an invitation to join a post-everything band he loved there, Tortoise. Parker was a prolific collaborator beyond that flagship, from his fascinating Isotope 217° project to albums with the likes of Chad Taylor and Michael Zerang. He would sometimes play gigs seven nights a week. But a dozen years ago, Parker moved with his growing family to Los Angeles, planning to turn to film scores since the city wasn’t known for its improvisational scene. Instead, he became key in creating one.

A quartet slowly took shape during his weekly residency at ETA, a bar named for David Foster Wallace. Drummer Jay Bellerose had gone to Berklee with Parker before becoming a folk-adjacent session ace, while saxophonist Joshua Johnson and bassist Anna Butterss were young improvisers who considered themselves students of Parker’s, inspired by the shape of his life and work. They began by playing standards until, one night, Parker told them to play free, a request that kickstarted a band that blurs the lines between jazz and minimalism, repetition and motion with every set. Recorded live after Parker grew discontent with their attempts to record in a studio, 2026’s Happy Today is a spellbinding affair, equally suited for passive and active listening. They build trance-like grooves that spiderweb through them, their practice of intense listening and instant response making for music that seems to be in the process of, much like Parker himself, forever unfolding.