Happy Today

Happy Today is the third album from guitarist/bandleader’s Je 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 eect 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. Album releasing while Je Parker, Josh Johnson, and Anna Butterss are on tour with Flea as part of his band, supporting his new Josh Johnson-produced solo album Honora.