Sounds of Patrick O’Hearn Light Up The Switchboard

By Octavio Roca

Washington (D.C.) Times, Aug. 23, 1988

It is difficult to know just what to make of Patrick O’Hearn.

The 33-year-old composer has made music all along the musical spectrum with artists as varied as Dexter Gordon, Chick Corea, Frank Zappa and Ravi Shankar. The sounds of his third solo album on Private Music, “Rivers Gonna Rise,” are outrageously eclectic and include elements of jazz, rock and New Age. It already is being mentioned as one of the best recordings of the year in all three categories.

“My music got a lot of New Age people hot under the collar,” said Mr. O’Hearn recently. “I guess because it’s too much rock ‘n’ roll and not exactly what they want. I won’t deny my rock influences. In fact, I am pleased that they come out in my music. It’s a tough road for instrumental rock ‘n’ roll, because obviously it’s not going to get played on your basic rock station – they want metal, they want head-banging. And they want what sounds like a castrato wailing three octaves above his normal speaking voice against a throbbing beat. Rock is supposed to be so nasty, you know. I guess my music is a tasteful version. So they call it New Age.

“I’m not sure I fully understand the term New Age,” confessed Mr. O’Hearn, whose 1987 “Between Two Worlds” received a Grammy nomination for best New Age performance. “In the strict sense it means objective music, music for healing, for health. That’s what real New Age fans expect – like Indians singing as they do a rain dance. They believe this is music hearkening the Age of Aquarius. It became a buzzword in 1986, a great marketing ploy for music that is basically uncategorizable. And traditional New Age people are upset.”

Still, the majority of fans seem pleased. In Washington, New Age radio station WBMW-FM is giving “Rivers Gonna Rise” a lot of play. “We pay a lot of attention to calls from our listeners,” said a station representaive. “When we play Patrick O’Hearn, the switchboard lights up with callers wanting to know the name of the CD so they can go and buy it. The reception to his music is very, very good.”

Patrick O’Hearn looks like a rock star, his tall and slender body topped by a shock of red hair that recalls Ann Sheridan’s prime. His speech is mellow, measured, and thoroughly American: often he sounds like Bing Crosby when he speaks. His extraordinary musical eclecticism can be traced to his parents’ musical tastes. “My family always stressed complete impartiality to music,” he said. “My folks would put on pounding jungle drums, then throw on Brahms’ Fourth Symphony. And when you think about it, real easy-listening music means the Brahms Fourth -- you can whistle along with it, after all. And it’s better than Barry Manilow, Tom Jones and all the Vegasy stuff that’s called ‘adult contemporary’ today.”

The music Mr. O’Hearn himself plays includes the avant-garde Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki and the West-German technopop wizards Kraftwerk. “They wrote the book,” he said. And what about the musical pablum that’s being pushed on the public as the new adult contemporary sound? “A lot of this stuff is giving new music a bad name. There’s a lot of [garbage] out there. I don’t want to sound bitter or derogatory, but it just doesn’t really work for me. Technology has made it possible for virtually anybody, even a complete novice, to be a published composer and have a record overnight. I mean, if you have a $1500 tax rebate coming, you can go to your local music store and get a mini studio and make a New Age album. Let’s face it, a few years ago the state of electronics was different. You had to learn how to program, you had to know something about electronic music. Now, it’s the ultimate player piano, and it’s having its revenge on us. The good side, of course, is that electronic instrumental music is becoming very popular.”

Mr. O’Hearn played guitar in Frank Zappa’s band in the late 1970s, the period just before Mr. Zappa’s “Thingfish” breakthrough. “It was a difficult, strange period for Frank,” said Mr. O’Hearn. “He was involved in a variety of lawsuits, in litigation more than in music. He was very bitter, and some of that bitterness came through in the music, which was a lot less musical and less clever than in the past. A lot of the stuff toward the end of my time there became downright vulgar.” Next, Mr. O’Hearn formed his own band. It was not a hit. “Jazz radio rejected it because it wasn’t fundamental jazz. Rock radio threw it out because there were no voals. And it sure wasn’t Top 40.” He returned to rock with the band Missing Persons, with whom he enjoyed commercial success until 1986.

By then, his first album for Private Music was recorded, and new musical frontiers were calling him. Today, with three solo albums and wide critical acclaim, he has a dedication to change that still keeps his fans guessing what will come next. “I’d love to write for the human voice,” he said. “Most of all, I like to keep my eyes open and my ears alert.”