Jeff Parker Captured a New Album in Real Time on a Los Angeles Stage

Jeff Parker has spent years anchoring a scene at Chicago’s ETA, a space where musicians from different backgrounds walk in and let the music find its own shape. His latest album with the ETA quartet, Happy Today, documents a moment when that process became the product. During an August show at Lodge Room in Los Angeles, Parker, drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Anna Butterss, and saxophonist Josh Johnson locked into an improvisation. The 44-minute set, the group realized later, had written an album right there on stage.

The full performance is out now, and it will soon double as a concert film, arriving May 29. This is Parker’s third record with the quartet, and it captures the kind of collective listening that has made his ETA residency a quiet focal point for improvised music in America. No overdubs, no second takes.