The Way Out of Easy, 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, is out now on International Anthem / Nonesuch Records. 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, 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, is due November 22 on International Anthem / Nonesuch Records. 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. You can watch a video for the seventeen-minute album track "Late Autumn," made by Mikel Patrick Avery, here.

Following this year's Big Ears Festival, in which more than 15 Nonesuch artists past, present, and future performed as part of the label's 60th anniversary celebrations, Big Ears has just announced the lineup for its 2025 running to take place in venues throughout downtown Knoxville, TN, March 27–30, 2025, including Ambrose Akinmusire, Jeff Parker, and Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and Frank Rosaly.

Congratulations to Cécile McLorin Salvant, Makaya McCraven, and Jeff Parker, each of whom has won the Deutscher Jazzpreis in Germany. Salvant won for International Vocal Album for her Nonesuch debut album, Ghost Song; McCraven for International Drums/Percussion; and Parker for International String Instrument. Winners were announced at an awards ceremony in Bremen today.

Congratulations to Cécile McLorin Salvant, Sam Gendel, Jeff Parker, and Makaya McCraven, who have all been nominated for Deutscher Jazzpreis in Germany: Salvant for International Vocal Album for her Ghost Song; Gendel and Parker for International String Instruments; and McCraven for International Drums/Percussion. Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in Bremen on April 27.

Jeff Parker stopped by Amoeba Music in San Francisco to share some of what he’s been listening to for their What’s in My Bag series, including music by Madlib; Eddie Harris; Doug Hammond & David Durrah; Elements; Ray Charles; Sly & Robbie Meet King Tubby; Sphere; The John Carter Octet; Jakob Bro, Arve Henriksen, and Jorge Rossy; Zawinul; and William S. Fischer. You can take a look inside here.

In These Times, the new album by percussionist, producer, and composer Makaya McCraven, is due September 23. It has been in process since 2015 and is the album McCraven’s been trying to make since he started making records, an appropriately career-defining body of work. The eleven-song suite was created over seven-plus years, as McCraven strived to fuse odd-meter compositions from his working songbook with orchestral, large-ensemble arrangements and the edit-heavy “organic beat music” he’s honed over the years. With contributions from over a dozen musicians and creative partners from his tight-knit circle of collaborators—including Jeff Parker, Junius Paul, Brandee Younger, Joel Ross, and Marquis Hill—In These Times highlights McCraven’s unique gift for collapsing space, destroying borders, and blending past, present, and future into poly-textural arrangements of post-genre, jazz-rooted 21st-century folk music.

Jeff Parker is on the International Anthem Podcast. He spoke with host Ayana Contreras in front of a live audience at Dorian's (Through The Record Shop) in Chicago last December, ahead of the release of his new solo guitar album, Forfolks. They talk about record collecting, Parker’s journey to embracing solo guitar sonics as improvisational atmospheres, and more. You can hear their conversation here.

WNYC's New Sounds dedicates its latest episode to "some of the exciting new music coming out of Chicago," including three albums released through partnership between the Chicago-born label International Anthem and Nonesuch Records: Jeff Parker's Suite for Max Brown and Forfolks and Ben LaMar Gay's Open Arms to Open Us. You can hear the episode here. Both artists will perform at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville in March. Parker then tours the West Coast with Steve Gunn and will perform on the East Coast with Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo in May.

Congratulations to guitarist/composer Jeff Parker, who has been named a recipient of the United States Artists' 2022 USA Fellowship. Parker is one of sixty-three artists across ten creative disciplines, including eight in the field of music, who will receive unrestricted $50,000 cash awards this year. The award honors their creative accomplishments and supports their ongoing artistic and professional development. The 2022 USA Fellows class is the largest in the organization’s sixteen-year history. USA Fellowships are awarded to artists at all stages of their careers and from all areas of the country through a rigorous nomination and panel selection process. Fellowships are given in the following disciplines: Architecture & Design, Craft, Dance, Film, Media, Music, Theater & Performance, Traditional Arts, Visual Art, and Writing.

Jeff Parker’s solo guitar album Forfolks is now available on vinyl and digitally on International Anthem / Nonesuch Records, with the CD out next week. The album includes interpretations of Thelonious Monk's “Ugly Beauty” and the standard “My Ideal,” plus six original compositions: two earlier tunes, “Four Folks” and “La Jetée,” and four new loop-driven, stratiform works that marry melodic improvisation with electronic textures. As Parker says: “I am trying to create a sonic world for me to wander around in.” Parker is co-headlining a US tour with Steve Gunn this month and next spring and will perform at NYC Winter JazzFest and Big Ears Festival.

Jeff Parker has released "Four Folks," a song from his upcoming solo guitar album Forfolks, due in December via International Anthem and Nonesuch Records. You can hear it here. It's a tune first written by Parker in 1995 and is one of six original compositions on the album, which also includes interpretations of Thelonious Monk’s “Ugly Beauty” and the standard “My Ideal." Parker says: “I am trying to create a sonic world for me to wander around in.” He will co-headline a US tour with Steve Gunn this Thursday.