Bio

McKean leads or co-leads several bands, including the chamber jazz quartet Bristle, the African-trance ensemble Tumble, the saxophone quartet Goggle, and the sax/drums duo TMBR.  He is a long-time member of Beaucoup Chapeaux, David Dvorin’s Flounder, and Ludi Hinrichs’ Chickenbonz.  McKean’s releases include the CDs Wild Horsey Ride, Flounder’s I’m the Flounder (Cure-All), Goggle’s Eeyahdi (Cure-All), Tumble’s Waves (Cure-All) and Music for Trio (Bandcamp), Bristle’s Future(s) Now(s) (Queen Bee) and Bulletproof (Edgetone), So Dig This Big Crux (Rastascan), the Great Circle Saxophone Quartet’s Child King Dictator Fool (New World), and the online releases Pac and Seep’s Cap and Piece and Live at Earthtone (Bandcamp), and Gargantius Effect +1+2+3 (w/Han-earl Park, Gino Robair & Scott Looney).  He studied with trumpeter Paul Smoker and composers Anthony Braxton and David Rosenboom.  He has lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City, and since 2002, he has lived in Grass Valley, California, located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.  His radio show The Outpost aired on Nevada City’s KVMR from 2007 to 2012.