"Spirit of Freedom" - Patrick Bartley Quintet (Japan)

An original of mine, "Spirit of Freedom", performed live at Naru Ochanomizu in Tokyo, Japan on February 7, 2020.

Originally titled "1965", this song was written during my freshman year at the Manhattan School of Music, dedicated to the simultaneous feelings of perpetual struggle and momentary celebration that were felt by various groups of people of all walks of life during the 1960s. I wanted to capture the sound and feeling of my heroes of the time, with the melody being influenced by an unusual combination of the "Odd Couple" theme mixed with the vibe of Coltrane's "Blues Minor" from the Africa/Brass recordings. I changed the name last year when I started playing it more and wanted a better title that needed less explanation.

Now the tune is its own thing, but the overall vibe is the same. I chose to go between G minor and F7 (with the D7 glue) because both sounds coming after each other kind of balance each other out, never getting "too dark" or too serious. I wanted this to be both a song to seriously go in on, and a generally fun jam tune in general. These guys really made it happen. Thanks for listening!

May Inoue - Guitar
Takafumi Suenaga - Piano
Yusuke Chigita - Bass
Hiro Kimura - Drums

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I'm STILL in shock, no matter how many times I go now, that I'm finally able to step foot in Japan - and almost call it home! All the videos you'll be seeing with this group are from my time there. I'm extremely grateful for all the friends I've met over there, and old ones that really helped me stay grounded while I'm there. I hope to keep going more soon, and these guys will be my first call whenever I'm there! Thanks to everyone watching this for supporting me, as well. Just watching and sharing really helps!


--- CHECK OUT the J-MUSIC Ensemble (if you haven't already!), for jazz covers of Video Game, J-Pop, and Anime music:
   / jmusicensembleofficial  


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