Encore! Jazz Sessions: J-Music Pocket Band

Back by popular demand! J-Music Pocket Band is an innovative jazz ensemble performing arrangements of Japanese pop and video game music.

Patrick Bartley, Jr. is the founder of J-Music Pocket Band and a Grammy-nominated saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.  Batley is a musician with experience in a wide range of situations, most notably for appearing on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and being featured in the Emmy-nominated HBO special Wynton Marsalis: A YoungArts Masterclass, which premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Although a South Florida native, Patrick spent the majority of his professional music career in NYC prior to graduating from the Manhattan School of Music. As an in-demand sideman, he has performed and recorded with musicians such as Louis Hayes, Jonathan Batiste, Mulgrew Miller, Jeff Coffin, and Wynton Marsalis, and has performed at world-renowned venues such as The STAPLES Center, Madison Square Garden, and the Black Sea Jazz Festival.

Born and raised in Hollywood, Florida, Patrick owes much of his success to his primary, secondary, and post-secondary education. While in middle school, under the tutelage of Melton Mustafa, Jr.—son of world-renowned trumpeter Melton Mustafa, Sr.—Patrick became the youngest musician to perform at the Jazz In The Gardens jazz festival in Miami Gardens, Florida, as well as the only musician to have performed on the stage twice. It was with Melton Mustafa, Jr. and Sr. that Patrick also got his first professional recording opportunity, this time at age 17. The recording session included Mulgrew Miller, Essiet Essiet, Ray Mantilla, Jason Jackson, and Victor Lewis. While attending high school, after making the Grammy High School Jazz Ensembles for two consecutive years, Patrick was given the opportunity to perform with the Dave Matthews Band live on the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards, and was also a YoungArts Gold Award recipient in Jazz.

Patrick’s interest in Japanese art, music, and culture started when he was six when he saw the massively popular and groundbreaking anime series Dragon Ball Z–which had syndication on Toonami at the time–and fell in love immediately. Before having any idea what anime was or that it was from Japan, Patrick continued to watch anime and play Japanese video games throughout middle school and high school, and played along to the soundtracks while simultaneously learning the saxophone.