Jeff Parker ETA IVtet - "Like Swimwear (part two)" single+video out today // 'Happy Today' LP, CD, Digi album out May 15th 2026
(( photo by Sam Lee ))
PRAISE FOR JEFF PARKER ETA IVTET &
HAPPY TODAY LEAD SINGLE “LIKE SWIMWEAR (PART ONE)”
"Parker patiently repeats a four-bar phrase while the quartet ruminates placidly within the static harmony, toying with their own little riffs...the tone stays meditative, a hushed conversation among friends." - New York Times"What 'Like Swimwear (part one)' reveals is true harmony—four experts in sync with themselves and each other." - Paste
"Nudge[s] minimalist beginnings into fertile wonder." - Guardian
"Parker’s never been flashy about his technique — though he’s not lacking of it — but somehow knows how to articulate his lines perfectly and can fit into any musical setting no matter how abstruse, unpredictable or knotted it might be." -Something Else!Guitarist / bandleader Jeff Parker shares digital single and video "Like Swimwear (part two)” today, April 22, 2026. The track is the latest piece of Happy Today, the third album from Parker’s long-running ETA IVtet, which is out May 15 via International Anthem / Nonesuch. Recorded and mixed live at Lodge Room in Los Angeles on August 20, 2025, Happy Today features Parker and the rest of the IVtet — drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Anna Butterss, and saxophonist Josh Johnson — engaged in their signature, minimalist, form-bending improvisational syntax across two sprawling, LP side-length pieces.
Listen to "Like Swimwear (part two)" and
pre-order / pre-save Happy Today here.
(( still from Charlie Weinmann’s Happy Today concert film ))
“Like Swimwear (part two)” is available as a digital single on all music platforms today, and an accompanying video for the track can be watched here. The video previews an album-length concert film, captured by director Charlie Weinmann at the Lodge Room performance that became Happy Today, that will be released May 29.
Weinmann’s noirish document offers a rare opportunity to see Parker and the elusive ETA IVtet in action. Premiere screenings will take place ahead of the album release date this spring, including in Brooklyn on May 1 at Public Records, Chicago on May 3 at The Land School, Los Angeles on April 26 at Vidiots, and Tokyo on May 8 at Park in Park. The full list of dates is below, and links to RSVP and purchase tickets are available via our website here.
LOS ANGELES CA - April 26th @ Vidiots
PORTLAND OR - April 30th & May 1st @ Mono Space
BROOKLYN NY - May 1st @ Public Records
CHICAGO IL - May 3rd @ The Land School
SALT LAKE CITY - May 3rd @ Mono Tape Club
SEATTLE WA - May 5th @ Northwest Film Forum
TOKYO JP - May 8th @ Park in Park
PORTO PT - May 13th @ Espaço Agra / Radioclube Agramonte
(( Happy Today cover photo by David Haskell, from his series Thirdness ))
Recorded and mixed in situ at Lodge Room by engineer Bryce Gonzales with a custom-made analog mixer and Nagra stereo tape recorder, Happy Today captures a bright moment during dark times. As Parker shares: “2025 was a very difficult year for me and my family. Dealing with being displaced from the Eaton fires for eight months, and the kind of toll 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 Happy Today. It’s meant to be a statement of joy.”
The past two years have been productive and busy as ever for Parker, who has long been a prominent player within a wide-range of music communities, in jazz and beyond. In 2025, he released new music and toured with his long-standing experimental rock band Tortoise and brought the ETA IVtet in for an NPR Tiny Desk performance. Additionally, Parker and two other members of the IVet — Butterss and Johnson — are featured on Flea's solo debut album, which was released March 27 on Nonesuch Records. The album, Honora, also was produced by Johnson.
Happy Today is ETA IVtet’s first recording made outside of the now-shuttered, widely-beloved Los Angeles micro-club ETA. Part laboratory, part low-stakes proving ground, ETA was where the band’s collective sound coalesced over the course of a storied seven-year Monday night residency that yielded two critically-acclaimed records — 2022’s Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy and 2024’s The Way Out of Easy.
With Happy Today, that sound—honed in such an intimate setting—is scaled up for a much larger audience and space at Lodge Room. But the essential formula remains the same, and has the same hypnotic, deeply-tuned listening effect. The almost alchemical musical communication creates a feeling of connection not only between the band members but also between the band and their audience—an ongoing trust exercise that invites listeners to become part of the exchange, and experience the joy of deep listening.
Happy Today is out May 15, preorder it here.
HAPPY TODAY
RELEASE SHOWS
In August, Parker and the ETA IVtet will do a run of Happy Today album release shows that includes a three-night stand in-the-round at Lodge Room in Los Angeles, almost exactly one year after the album was recorded in the very same place. Tickets and info for all below.
DELUXE VINYL PACKAGE
Happy Today comes on 140 gram vinyl inside a heavyweight jacket with brown card inner pockets, IARC obi strip & poly-lined innersleeve. Lacquers cut by Daniel K at SST. US stock pressed at New Orleans Record Press, stock for the rest of the world pressed at Pallas in Germany.
Limited Edition *Cerulean Blue* Color Vinyl - $34
Classic Black Vinyl - $29
also available on
Compact Disc - $15
!!! SPRING '26 BUNDLE IS HERE !!!
Happy Today is the first of two new IARC releases for Spring 2026. And, per our norm, both LPs are available to purchase together, as part of the Spring ‘26 Bundle.
A purchase of the Spring ‘26 Bundle (on either classic black vinyl or color vinyl) comes with a bundle-exclusive discount of 10% off the LP prices + a discounted shipping cost.
The LPs included are:
IARC0109 Jeff Parker ETA IVtet - Happy Today
IARC0111 (TBA)
Bundles will ship from warehouses in the US, EU and UK, but don't sleep.. the quantity available in each warehouse is limited! Early purchase is recommended to ensure the lowest possible shipping and tax costs.
All items will ship around May 15th. Bandcamp download codes will be sent via email for all the releases by, or before, the ship date.
Order Spring '26 Bundle on
COLOR VINYL here
Order Spring '26 Bundle on
BLACK VINYL here
