Jeff Parker ETA IVtet - The Way Out Of Easy - OUT NOW on all digital music platforms
Jeff Parker ETA IVtet
The Way Out of Easy
** OUT NOW **
ALL MUSIC PLATFORMS
Today, guitarist Jeff Parker releases The Way Out of Easy, the new album with his long-running ETA IVtet featuring saxophonist Josh Johnson (SML, Meshell Ndegeocello, Leon Bridges), bassist Anna Butterss (SML, Jason Isbell, Phoebe Bridgers), and drummer Jay Bellerose (Robert Plant, Allen Toussaint, Joe Henry), on all digital streaming platforms via International Anthem/Nonesuch Records.
Upon the album's physical release last month, it debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Current Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, and Pitchfork named it Best New Music. Some other highlights here below:
"An array of sounds, including big fat grooves, hazy ambience, spooky dub, and exploratory solos. Throughout the band demonstrates how patient, tight, adaptable, and transcendent they can be."
Aquarium Drunkard
"The vibe is laid-back, but it rewards rapt attention...This exceptional record fixes your attention on the present moment."
Pitchfork, Best New Music
"There’s no rush, no showing off, just a shared curiosity."
The New York Times
"A testament to the power of live jazz – a mercurial form that captivates when in the right hands."
The Observer
“A believably brilliant measurement of craft...the ETA IVtet sprawl beautifully through contrasts and collisions."
Paste
“Groove-oriented, painterly, polyrhythmic, minimalist and mantric improvised music — rather like meditation through motion.”
WNYC New Sounds
“‘Freakadelic’ is a slowly building saga of understated, psychedelic funk fusion.”
The FADER
“Extends the quartet's musical vocabulary and sonic identity. While they may not be able to play ETA any longer, their musical signature and group communication prove they can make magic anywhere.”
AllMusic
“One of the most thrilling passages of music you’ll hear all year, the kind of music that makes you thankful that music exists.”
Molars
“’Late Autumn,’ a collectively and spontaneously composed piece, begins with gentle solo guitar from Parker, before Johnson, Butterss, and Bellerose gradually slide in around him, the drummer seeming to do the least but in fact giving the music a sunrise-over-the-temple feel with gentle cymbal and gong strikes.”
Stereogum
“The musical equivalent of a fresh shower. The listener emerges renewed.”
Glide Magazine
“Parker's recent music represents one of the most sophisticated applications of hiphop language into jazz, whether he's playing over beats and loops or imitating their feel in real time.”
Wire Magazine
“[The Way Out of Easy] is really a cool thing to have in your body of work. It'll touch people for a long time. There's nothing else like it.”
Flea, in conversation with Jeff Parker for GQ
** Live Dates **
2 Nights at Zebulon [Los Angeles]
December 16th & 17th @ Zebulon
2478 Fletcher Dr, Los Angeles, CA
To close out the year, the ETA IVtet will play for the hometown crowd at Zebulon in Los Angeles. Two nights, two sets each night.
On Monday 12/16, there will be DJ sets by Jocelyn Brown before, between, and after the band plays. And on Tuesday 12/17, there will be DJ sets by Zach Cowie before, between, and after the band plays.
Get Tickets for night one here.
Get Tickets for night two here.
Big Ears Festival 2025
In March 2025, JP and the IVtet will be just one of the many wonderful performers playing the greatest festival in the world – i.e. Big Ears in Knoxville, Tennessee. There's a whole slew of IARC artists performing...
Alabaster DePlume
Friday, March 28
Carlos Niño & Friends
Thursday, March 27; Friday, March 28; and Saturday, March 29
Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly
Friday, March 28
Jeff Parker ETA IVtet
Friday, March 28th, 2025
Macie Stewart
Sunday, March 30
SML
Saturday, March 29
((( photo by David Haskell )))
...about...
The Way Out of Easy is composed of recordings from Los Angeles creative music outpost ETA — a venue where Parker and this ensemble held a weekly residency from 2016 until it closed in December of 2023. Over seven years of working in that space, the ETA IVtet evolved from a band that played mostly standards into a group known for its transcendent, long-form journeys into innovative, groove-oriented minimalist and mantric improvised music. All four tracks on The Way Out of Easy come from a single night in 2023, providing an unfiltered view of the ensemble, fully in their element, embarking in linear improvisations that unfold across eighty minutes of music recorded and mixed live by engineer Bryce Gonzales.
Gonzales – who is known for the high-end audio gear he builds as Highland Dynamics, and even designed a custom mixer to be able to record this band at ETA – also wrote liner notes for The Way Out of Easy. In his notes he colors his approach: “For this band, the most important thing to consider is: not doing anything to get in the way of what they are saying to each other.” He also describes the simple schematic he created to capture the recordings – “basically only 4 level controls for one microphone per player” – which is evident in the incredibly vivid, clear and transparent sound on The Way Out of Easy.
** Deluxe Vinyl Package **
The Way Out Of Easy comes on two 140g vinyl LPs inside a heavyweight gatefold jacket with IARC obi strip and poly-lined printed innersleeves. Pressed at Pallas in Germany, with lacquers cut by Daniel K at SST.
