Watch Jeff Parker & ETA IVtet’s Improvised ‘Tiny Desk Concert’

Last year, guitarist Jeff Parker released an album entitled The Way Out Of Easy that was recorded live on January 2, 2023 at ETA in Los Angeles. Parker and the musicians featured on the record – the ETA IVtet – brought the improvisational spirit of the album to NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert.

Both The Way Out Of Easy and the Tiny Desk Concert saw Parker joined by saxophonist Josh Johnson, bassist Anna Butterss and drummer Jay Bellerose. The collective coalesced during Parker’s seven-year Monday-night residency at ETA, which was the source of The Way Out Of Easy and ended with the closure of the venue in December 2023.

In a nod to Bryce Gonzales, who recorded and engineered The Way Out Of Easy, NPR’s Andie Huether pulled out a Nagra IV tape recorder – similar to the one Gonzales used at ETA – and placed it on the desk during the performance.

“In the days before portable digital recorders,” Huether stated, “NPR reporters and engineers would take machines like this one into the field to capture reporting and bring (or ship) the resultant tapes back to HQ to be edited and incorporated into our broadcasts.”

Parker, Johnson, Butterss and Bellerose spent 22 minutes improvising their Tiny Desk Concert. Watch the dynamic “Hearing 3.26.25” performance below: