Patrick O'Hearn: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 19:23, 28 June 2010
Patrick O'Hearn (b. September 6, 1954) is a multi-instrumentalist musician, composer and recording artist.
History
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 from Sunset High School in 1972, he moved to Seattle. There, he briefly attended Cornish College of the Arts and, as well, 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 bass for well-established artists Charles Lloyd, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, Joe Pass, Woody Shaw, Eddie Henderson, and Bobby Hutcherson, as well as with other like-aged young musicians, including Terry Bozzio, Mark Isham and Peter Maunu.
While on tour in Los Angeles in 1976, O'Hearn met musician Frank Zappa, who offered him a job as bass player in his band - a position he held for over two years. During this period, O’Hearn shifted from the acoustic bass to the electric bass guitar (given the requirements of Zappa's arrangements), and also became increasingly interested in electronic music. Zappa encouraged O’Hearn to explore his premium collection of synthesizers, and also introduced him to the technical aspects of intricate physical tape editing as a way of producing compositions (in an era prior to home computers), audio engineering, and home studio audio recording equipment.
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 and the ambient minimalism of Brian Eno. Although they only produced two LPs — 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. Both Isham and Maunu would continue as important collaborators on several of O'Hearn's subsequent solo releases.
In 1981, drummer and former Zappa bandmate Terry Bozzio invited O’Hearn to join his emerging rock/new wave band, Missing Persons. The nature of the music called for O'Hearn to make a further shift — this time, from electric bass to synthesizers. Missing Persons recorded three albums for Capitol Records: Spring Session M (1982), Rhyme & Reason (1984), and Color In Your Life (1985). The band dissolved in early 1986; subsequently, O'Hearn joined with former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor and former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones for one album, Thunder (1986), and a brief tour. Although both Terry Bozzio and Warren Cuccurullo later contributed to several of O'Hearn's solo albums, O'Hearn declined to take part in the 2001 Missing Persons reunion.
Private Music
O'Hearn's solo career was spurred in large part by former Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann, who had been 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 debut solo 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 voice.
O'Hearn followed Ancient Dreams with two more albums - Between Two Worlds (1987) 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 called Mix Up was released by Private Music in 1990, featuring contributions from popular music producers, including David Frank, Joe "The Butcher" Nicolo, 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." [1]
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 being "In the tradition of Ancient Dreams", O'Hearn downplayed the use of synthesizers and instead focused on manipulating space, acoustics, and textures to create an album with a cohesive consistency of tone.
Following the commercial success of Yanni's compilation albums, Private Music issued a retrospective - The Private Music of Patrick O'Hearn - in 1992. This contained three previously unreleased tracks that have a similar feel and ambience to Rivers Gonna Rise. Also in 1992 O'Hearn composed and performed the music score for White Sands, a police thriller starring Willem Dafoe and Samuel L. Jackson. (The movie was directed by Roger Donaldson, of Cocktail fame.)
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 in 1995 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 O'Hearn's next album Metaphor (1996), the Deep Cave record label folded.
Today
In 2001, O'Hearn ended another lengthy hiatus from solo product with the release of So Flows The Current, which was recorded between 1997 and 2000. This album saw O'Hearn move away from the MIDI-centric style of music production and performance, relying more on musicians playing live together in the studio. The result is a rich tapestry of earthy and yet atmospheric music, which actually yielded a second album later in 2006 (see below).
Beautiful World was O'Hearn's next release in 2003, and it was voted the #1 album on the nationally syndicated radio program Echoes. This was followed by Slow Time in 2005, which 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.
In 2006, O'Hearn released three recordings via online delivery only. These are The So Flows Sessions (previously unreleased material from the same recording sessions in 1997-2000 that produced So Flows The Current). Very often, tracks recorded but excluded from an album's release are somewhat inferior in quality to the songs that made the album, but the material on The So Flows Sessions is very strong indeed and it stands up as an album on its own. Also released in 2006 was the soundtrack to the stage play Simpatico (originally recorded in 1994), as well as the soundtrack EP to the short film The Wheelhouse. The next year in 2007 O'Hearn released the CD Glaciation, which pays homage to the earth's Arctic regions.
In 2008, he played bass on John Hiatt's "Same Old Man" studio release, and toured with Hiatt as a member of the "Ageless Beauties". 2009 saw O'Hearn recording again with John Hiatt and the Ageless Beauties. "Open Road" is due for release in March 2010 with touring to follow.
O'Hearn is presently at work on his next studio album. No title or release date as yet.
Discography
Solo Albums
| Release Date | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Ancient Dreams | Private Music |
| 1987 | Between Two Worlds | Private Music |
| 1988 | Rivers Gonna Rise | Private Music |
| Aug 4, 1989 | Eldorado | Private Music |
| Sep 24, 1991 | Indigo | Private Music |
| July 25, 1995 | Trust | Deep Cave |
| March 7, 1996 | Metaphor | Deep Cave |
| Feb 20, 2001 | So Flows the Current | Paras Recordings |
| Nov 4, 2003 | Beautiful World | patrickohearn.com |
| June 28, 2005 | Slow Time | patrickohearn.com |
| July 7, 2006 | The So Flows Sessions | (iTunes) |
| Aug 22, 2007 | Glaciation | patrickohearn.com |
Compilations
| Release Date | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Mix-Up (Remixes by other producers) | Private Music |
| Nov 10, 1992 | The Private Music of Patrick O'Hearn | Private Music |
| July 15, 1997 | A Windham Hill Retrospective | Windham Hill |
| March 16, 2010 | A Windham Hill Retrospective reissue | Valley Entertainment[2] |
Soundtracks
| Release Date | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | White Sands | Morgan Creek |
| 1996 | Crying Freeman | Ariola |
| 2006 | The Wheelhouse | (iTunes) |
| 2006 | Simpatico | (iTunes) |
Film Soundtracks Not Released
| Film Released | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1988 | The Destroyer | Unreleased |
| 1991 | Heaven is a Playground | Unreleased |
| 1993 | Father Hood | Unreleased |
| 1994 | Silent Tongue | Unreleased |
| 1995 | As Good As Dead (TV) | Unreleased |
| 1999 | Alien Cargo (TV) | Unreleased |
| 2000 | Border Patrol (TV) | Unreleased |
See also
External links
Notes
- ^ "Interview with Patrick O'Hearn". Ambient Visions. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
- ^ "A Windham Hill Retrospective". Valley Entertainment-Windham Hill Records. Retrieved 28 June 2010.