The Way Out of Easy is the first album from guitarist Jeff Parker and his long-running ETA IVtet—saxophonist Josh Johnson, bassist Anna Butterss, drummer Jay Bellerose—since their 2022 debut Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, which Pitchfork named one of the Best Albums of the 2020s So Far. Like that album, The Way Out of Easy comprises recordings from LA venue ETA, where Parker and the ensemble held a weekly residency for seven years. During that time, 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 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.
The Way Out of Easy, a new album from guitarist Jeff Parker and 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), was released November 22, 2024, on International Anthem / Nonesuch Records. The Way Out of Easy is the first recording by Parker and this ensemble since their 2022 debut Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, which was named one of the Best Albums of the 2020s So Far by Pitchfork.
Like the critically lauded Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, The Way Out of Easy is composed entirely 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 used 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.
Along with the album announcement today, an album track is available on all digital music platforms. “Late Autumn” finds Parker swaying in alliterative, arpeggiating cycles, using just a few plucked notes as he lays the compositional foundation. At first it almost sounds like an echo of a humble tune from his 2021 solo guitar album Forfolks, but in this space his ensemble joins him to help build a beautifully multi-textured, gently-shifting four-dimensional construction out of a simple idea.
The seventeen-minute track also comes with a full-length film by multimedia artist and musician Mikel Patrick Avery. For “Late Autumn,” Avery both created and filmed a series of improvised mechanical balancing sculptures in his Philadelphia studio. Watch the video here:
