'Happy Today' is the third album from guitarist/bandleader’s Jeff Parker’s long-running ETA IVtet, recorded live at Lodge Room in Los Angeles on August 20, 2025. This fresh entry into the IVtet’s catalog captures the instantly recognizable group sound of Parker and the band—including drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Anna Butterss, and saxophonist Josh Johnson—on record outside of the now-shuttered Highland Park micro-club ETA for the first time ever.
'Happy Today' is that sound—the IVtet's signature syntax built around long-form, minimalist improvisation—expanding confidently into 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.)
Recorded and mixed live, direct to a Nagra tape machine by engineer Bryce Gonzales, utilizing a compact outboard rig that he built himself, specifically to record this band.
A full album length film by Charlie Weinmann, documenting the band's performance of 'Happy Today' at Lodge Room, 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 the joyful reality of seeing the IVtet at work widely accessible for the first time.
'Happy Today' is that sound—the IVtet's signature syntax built around long-form, minimalist improvisation—expanding confidently into 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.)
Recorded and mixed live, direct to a Nagra tape machine by engineer Bryce Gonzales, utilizing a compact outboard rig that he built himself, specifically to record this band.
A full album length film by Charlie Weinmann, documenting the band's performance of 'Happy Today' at Lodge Room, 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 the joyful reality of seeing the IVtet at work widely accessible for the first time.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Swirls of reverbed saxophone and skittering percussion, the funky throb of upright bass and Parker's otherworldly guitar solos that push and pull, reminiscent of blues guitar but played through a microphone set up on the other side of the space.TRACK LISTING
1. Like Swimwear
2. Happy Today
