JAZZ REVIEW : Patrick O’Hearn Music Blends Variety of Music Styles

The most appealing aspect of Patrick O’Hearn’s music is its colorful musical eclecticism--a defiance of category directly reflecting his experience with performers ranging from Frank Zappa and Missing Persons to Dexter Gordon and Joe Pass.

O’Hearn’s program at the Roxy on Monday night used a New Age rubric to encompass a creative vision rich enough to include a broad variety of styles. But the smooth surface of the largely electronic sounds covered a roiling undercurrent of energy.

Deceptively easy-going, overflowing with smooth tones and subtle accents, O’Hearn’s music was at its best in those pieces--”Rainmaker,” “The Stroll” and “Beauty in Darkness” were good examples--which moved beyond their deceptively meditative cover into an arena of sparkling dissonances and turbulent rhythms.

O’Hearn divided his playing between keyboards and bass, with a bit too much of the former and not quite enough of the latter. A brief solo introduction, an occasional melodic interlude and a few ensemble passages only whetted the appetite to hear more bass playing from this gifted and versatile performer.

Guitarist Peter Maunu used a solo spot on “Subtle Persuasion” to advantage, and drummer John Valen had no problems with the varied demands of O’Hearn’s works. Electronic drummer Doug DeForest, however, turned his unusual instrument into a sidebar feature that was occasionally more visually distracting than it was musically supportive.

The real star of the evening, in any case, was O’Hearn’s music. Not yet quite fully risen, it seems to be moving toward a fascinating new area of the musical firmament that brings together the energies of rock, the improvisational surprises of jazz and the calming qualities of New Age.