Patrick O'Hearn



Patrick O'Hearn (b. September 6, 1954)   multi-instrumentalist Musician, Composer and recording artist.

Formative Years
Born in Los Angeles and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Patrick O'Hearn began his professional music career at age 15 when he joined the Musicians Union and began playing night clubs in Portland, Oregon. Upon graduating High School in 1972 he moved to Seattle and both briefly attended Cornish College of the Arts and studied privately with bassist Gary Peacock.

In 1973 he moved to San Francisco and soon became involved in the vibrant Bay Area jazz scene of that time, playing as bassist for well established artists, Charles Lloyd, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, Joe Pass, Woody Shaw, Eddie Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson and others, including like-aged young musicians,  Terry Bozzio, Mark Isham and Peter Maunu. - all three of whom would later factor into O’Hearn’s musical development.

While on tour in Los Angeles in 1976 he met Frank Zappa who offered him a job as bass player in his band. - a position he retained for the next 2 1/2 years. During this period O’Hearn shifted away from acoustic bass to exclusively electric bass guitar (called upon for the context of the music) and became interested in electronic music instruments (synthesizers), of which Zappa had a premium collection, and, - importantly - who encouraged O’Hearn to explore them. Zappa also introduced him to the technical aspects of intricate physical tape editing to produce compositions, (in an era prior to home computers), as well as audio engineering and home studio recording equipment. - these years would leave a lasting impression.

In 1979 O'Hearn teamed with trumpet player Mark Isham and guitarist Peter Maunu to form Group 87, an ensemble heavily influenced by the instrumental jazz fusion of Weather Report as well as the electronic stylings of Kraftwerk, ambient minimalism of Brian Eno and general alternative rock that flourished in that decade. Although only two LPs were produced — Group 87 in 1980 and A Career in Dada Processing in 1984 — Group 87 would help establish the musical direction of O'Hearn's solo career, and both Isham and Maunu would continue as important collaborators on several of O'Hearn's subsequent solo releases.

In 1981, drummer Terry Bozzio, - a former Zappa band mate and now longtime friend - invited O’Hearn to join his emerging rock/new wave band, Missing Persons. The nature of the music called for a further shift from bass guitar to synthesizers. - by now of keen interest to him. Missing Persons recorded three albums for Capitol Records, “Spring Session M” (1982) “Rhyme and Reason” (1984) and “Color In Your Life” (1985). The band dissolved in early 1986 with Terry leaving to team up with guitarist Jeff Beck, and Patrick joining up with former Duran Duran guitarist, Andy Taylor and former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones for an album, “Thunder” (1986) and brief touring.

Private Music
O'Hearn's solo career was spurred in large part by former Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann, whom Patrick met in New York City in 1984 and who was then conceiving of a new music label that would showcase progressive instrumental music - a niche earlier explored by Group 87. Baumann formed the Private Music label in late 1984 and signed O'Hearn as a charter artist (along with Mahavishnu Orchestra violinist, Jerry Goodman,  Roxy Music keyboardist, Eddie Jobson, and later, New Age notables Yanni and Suzanne Ciani), and produced O'Hearn's solo debut album, Ancient Dreams (1985).

Signature elements readily manifest in Ancient Dreams: found percussion instruments, hypnotic bass guitar patterns, synthesized pads, and minimalist harmonies. Perhaps biased by his preferred instrument, O'Hearn often adds jazz elements, particularly in his frequent use of the bass guitar (often a fretless bass) as the lead melody.

O'Hearn followed Ancient Dreams with two more albums - Between Two Worlds (1986) and Rivers Gonna Rise (1988). Notably, the albums gradually became brighter in tone as O'Hearn began to receive greater airplay on jazz and new age radio stations. O'Hearn also co-produced several tracks for guitarist Colin Chin's Intruding on a Silence, featuring Mark Isham on trumpet - as such, the output strongly echoes Group 87's earlier work.

The fourth album, Eldorado (1989), ventured decidedly into the World Music genre - infusing O'Hearn's signature sound with rhythms and timbres drawn from disparate sources such as South America and the Middle East. As such, O'Hearn's arrangements accommodated a wider array of instrumentation - such as human singing and the solo violin (most notably on "Black Delilah".) Commercially, Eldorado performed well among New Age audiences - some tracks remain popular on jazz stations today.

An album of techno remixes followed in 1990, featuring contributions from popular music producers, including David Frank and Carmen Rizzo Jr. However, Mix Up was panned by critics and fans, and remains long out of print. In a 2001 interview, O'Hearn said that the album was "the brain child of the A&R dept. of Private Music.... Overall, I enjoyed the outcome, but some of the stuff makes me cringe to this day."

Yet another major turning point in O'Hearn's music career was marked with the release of Indigo (1991). Ostensibly billed by the label as a "return" to the tradition of Ancient Dreams, O'Hearn downplayed the use of synthesizers and instead focused on manipulating space, acoustics, and textures to create a consistency of tone previously eschewed in albums like Eldorado.

Following the commercial success of Yanni's compilation albums, Private Music issued a retrospective - The Private Music of Patrick O'Hearn - in 1992.

Deep Cave
After a four year absence of solo album recording, - a period in which he was primarily involved in film music composition - O'Hearn released Trust under the newly formed Deep Cave record label. Featuring contributions from David Torn and former bandmates Terry Bozzio and Warren Cuccurullo, Trust earned O'Hearn his first Grammy nomination.

Shortly after the release of Metaphor (1996), the Deep Cave record label folded.

Today
O'Hearn ended another lengthy absence from solo work with the release of two albums under his eponymous label: So Flows The Current (2001) and Beautiful World (2003). Beautiful World was voted the #1 album on the nationally syndicated radio program Echoes.

Slow Time (2005) marked a departure for O'Hearn, in that he ventured into the experimental realm characterized by musical movements of the 20th century - including references to Steve Roach and Pierre Boulez. Says O'Hearn on his website : "Slow Time is for me an interesting record. From cyclical sounding, music for three vibraphones — a complex arpeggio or round, of two simple Major 9th chords — which never quite repeats itself, to the ambient leaning title track, slow time. The album explores or touches upon territories of the tonal, abstract, experimental and traditional."