Jul 22, 2026 12:37 PM
In Memoriam: Rodney Holmes, 1966–2026
Drummer Rodney Holmes, a powerful presence behind the kit who emerged as an in-demand player on the New York scene…
“When we get together to play, to improvise, we’re just trying to make something fresh and all those influences and experiences that everybody has just comes out in a natural way,” says Jeff Parker of his ETA IVtet, from left, Josh Johnson, Jay Bellrose, Ana Butterss and Parker.
(Photo: Sam Lee)Guitarist Jeff Parker surprised himself when he saw his smile in the photo that became the cover of Happy Today (International Anthem/Nonesuch), the recent concert recording with his ETA IVtet. Never one to grin for cameras, Parker’s performance also took place during a troubling time. Ultimately, the brightly resilient image and the ensemble’s music highlight an ideal response to adversity.
As Parker spoke over Zoom from Berlin while on tour with Flea, he described how last year’s wildfires displaced his family from their home in Altadena, California, for eight months. He also condemned such outrages as the ICE raids, particularly in Southern California. In the midst of such situations, his quartet’s onstage dialog and the audience’s response became a message of emotional resistance.
“It was a difficult time and then the concert was a beautiful moment,” Parker said. “The band hadn’t played for a while and we had developed a dedicated following of people in Los Angeles. We were playing in a bigger space and it was a joyous night in many ways, the community that the music can create of people coming together and celebrate this experience of this collective thing. There was a lot of positive energy in the room that night.”
That energy flows in surprising directions throughout Happy Today. Nuance guides two extensive pieces with bits of subtle funk punctuating minimalist shifts. Loops, drones and electronic effects serve to enhance the group’s resolutely human sound. An accompanying film by Charlie Weinmann documents the concert with unconventional angles that accentuate the ensemble’s emphasis on spontaneous composition.
“When we get together to play, to improvise, we’re just trying to make something something fresh and all those influences and experiences that everybody has just comes out in a natural way,” Parker said. “Nobody’s a revisionist, trying to recreate anything. We’re trying to make something new, and the goal is you don’t really know what it is.”
The ETA IVtet grew out of sessions Parker led at the (now closed) Enfield Tennis Academy venue after he moved to the Los Angeles, from Chicago, in 2013. At first Parker sought commercial work, seeing as the city is an entertainment hub. But around 2016, he reconnected with an old friend, drummer Jay Bellerose, who wanted to get back into playing jazz. He then invited bassist Anna Butterss and saxophonist Josh Johnson who, like Parker, embraces new technologies. Gradually, each musician’s distinctive personalities emerged.
“Josh’s way of incorporating electronics into his saxophone sound is so flawless, creative and profound, it’s super inspiring and a marvelous thing to witness,” Parker said. “Anna’s ears are huge, they hear everything. When we would play the weekly gig at ETA, the only thing we would ever talk about is, ‘Are we going to play tunes or improvise?’ If I’d say, ‘Let’s play tunes,’ Jay would come with a standard bebop kit, but if I said, ‘We’re going to improvise,’ you’d never know what he would come with. He might bring a 30-inch bass drum, percussion instruments with built-in echo chambers and really thin cymbals that would sound like thunder.”
With that shared mindset, the group built an audience for continuously developing open-ended improvisation. Parker released The Way Out Of Easy (Nonesuch) two years ago. Happy Today shows how much further the quartet has developed from their initial impulses.
“We just settled into this intentional way of improvising that was a natural evolution of the band,” Parker said. “We started out probably for the first four or five years of our residency playing standards over time, the kind of playing over song structures and that stuff kind of weeded itself out and we decided to focus on improvising. Which also is us exploiting these technologies, at least for myself and Josh. We use looping pedals where we can create drones and play off each other and create these atmospheric spaces that do set a mood and it is about seeing how long we can sustain a mood in the music.”
These moods also resonate throughout Parker’s California albums in different formats. The sense of open space on Happy Today connect to the home studio experiments on his 2021 solo guitar album Forfolks (International Anthem). Similarly, the beats on the new live album sometimes reference the R&B influences on his 2020 New Breed recording, Suite For Max Brown. But rather than representing a break from his time in Chicago during the 1990s and early 2000s, Parker describes those years as foundational and ongoing. That was where his experiences ranged from playing jazz with other members of the Association For the Advancement of Creative Musicians to his work with the rock band Tortoise. He is currently writing pieces to perform in Chicago for a concert at Symphony Center next February.
“Chicago, culturally and musically, all that it had to offer and me having to exist within the culture of the city molded me and made me into what I’m doing now,” Parker said. “I was fortunate that I had a 25-year career as a creative musician coming up in the richness of the Chicago music community behind me.”
Looking back on Parker’s own albums from about 20 years ago also indicates how much of his musical philosophy has remained steadfast. His 2003 trio release Like-Coping (Delmark) and 2005 quartet outing The Relatives (Thrill Jockey) convey the same concentration on minimalism and low-key dynamics as his recent work.
“I can draw a pretty consistent line through most of the music that I’ve made under my own name as a leader or kind of a collaborative,” Parker said. “I’m trying to invite the listener into, kind of, this sonic world. That’s what I like about making records: You can use that medium to create a sound world where it’s not so much about capturing a performance but you’re more thinking about it in a much broader way — like it’s a way to present one’s vision of sound itself.” DB
A drummer’s drummer, Rodney Holmes gigged with everyone from Joe Zawinul and Carlos Santana to Steve Kimock and the Brecker Brothers.
Jul 22, 2026 12:37 PM
Drummer Rodney Holmes, a powerful presence behind the kit who emerged as an in-demand player on the New York scene…
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