RIP Paul McKee AKA Free For All

[Dan Gould]

I see on his Facebook page that formerly active member Free For All aka Paul McKee, trombonist and teacher, has died.

If you were friends with him on FB you followed his fight with cancer over many months/years, always in the company of his adorable cat, Norman, and supported by wife Angie. I feared this day was coming sooner than later after he announced that he was going into hospice care.

RIP.

[JSngry]

Oh no...what a great guy!

RIP

[Eric]

Yes, a nice guy indeed.  He had ties to the Kansas City area.

[clifford_thornton]

Damn, that's terrible news. He had not posted here in ages, and I am not on Facebook so was unaware of his health issues. 

Great guy, that's for sure. RIP!

[Pim]

Awful. RIP. I think he was mostly active before I became a member here. His profile shows he did check in this month. 

[Chuck Nessa]

shit

[GA Russell]

Very sorry to hear of this.  I thought of him from time to time.

RIP Free For All!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I didn't know he was sick. I've seen several Facebook posts from his numerous students. He was a well-respected teacher, with stints at University of Colorado, DePaul University, Youngstown State University, Northern Illinois University, the University of Missouri at Kansas City and Florida State University.

[mikeweil]

Sad news .....

[jazzbo]

$#@!

Another fine man to be missed.

[HutchFan]

R.I.P.

[JSngry]

We had him over for dinner once. He was a big man, and he ate robustly but never gluttonishly.

Similarly, his comportment was musicianly but always respectful, especially around my wife.

The evening seemed to have been a delight for all!!!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

A lot of great pictures are showing up on Facebook. I liked this one:

He was good friends with John Fedcock. John posted this tribute on Facebook:

The world lost someone special today. There are few people who touch your life in a way that makes an indelible mark, and Paul McKee was one of those people. He was one of my oldest and dearest friends. I first met him in 1984. An opening came up on Woody Herman’s band, and I was given the task of hiring the new trombonist. In reviewing all the audition tapes, Paul was the clear winner, without question. His soloing was so mature for someone in their 20s, and the charts he shared on the tape were professional level. I still have that tape! After only a day or two on the band, we just clicked and have been close ever since. We shared so much in our likes, dislikes, musical heroes, best-liked movies, favorite comedians, the way we thought about music, etc, it was like I had known him my whole life.

 

We both left Woody’s band on the same day in the summer of 1987, and although going our separate ways to different parts of the country, we stayed in close touch and continued to work together. On the road, we developed a special musical connection, first born from us playing unaccompanied choruses together, inspired by our mutual love for bootleg recordings of Carl Fontana and Frank Rosolino doing the same. That developed into a special kind of telepathy when playing in small groups over subsequent years, to the point of us many times falling into the exact same line for a quick few beats amidst an involved counterpoint. That never failed to crack us up.

 

My experiences playing with Paul were some of the most important moments in my musical life. But he was not only a master musician. Paul was also just a fantastic guy. Someone that everyone loved. A great hang. An amazing wit. A BBQ & grill master. To be able to call him a true friend is a privilege I will never take for granted.

 

My heartfelt love, thoughts and unending support are with Angie, Sam and Julia in this immensely difficult time. I feel honored to have been with Paul during his last days on this earth. I will miss him for the rest of my life. But I’m also so glad to carry with me all of the special memories from everything we shared. Rest easy, my friend. You will be in our thoughts forever.

[John Tapscott]

Sorry to hear of the passing of Paul McKee, trombonist, writer/arranger, jazz educator, yesterday, after a long illness. He posted on org for quite a while under the name Free for All. 

 

 

[Rooster_Ties]

Super nice guy!! I didn’t know Paul super well, but I heard/saw him on quite a number of his gigs in KC, and we had lunch a handful of times — and a lovely hang one afternoon in his house and listening room.

And he always played a request for me whenever I caught him in small combos with local rhythm sections — often “Beatrice” and “Black Narcissus”.  And he often played a favorite Woody Shaw tune of his for me whenever he could — Paul was a big Shaw fan.

And I’m pretty sure I saw Paul with the Woody Herman alums band in KC too (at The Drum room, my main jazz hang) — probably a year or three years before we even met (I forget the exact timing).

It was funny, the very first time I actually met Paul — he was playing as an extra with the Westport Art Ensemble, and I chatted him up between sets. And I must have said something — probably about Tyrone Washington and/or Andrew Hill — and he immediately asked me, “Hey, are you on the Organissimo board?  Turns out he’d been lurking here for years!

So just from our brief conversation, in less than 2 minutes, he’d figured out who I was here on the board.

I immediately copped to being “Rooster_Ties” (such a genuinely weird feeling in that moment, to be ‘known’ just from my ‘personality’ online) — but I also immediately said he REALLY needed to stop lurking, and get in the game and start posting here — which he eventually did in another month or two (I think I had to chide him  about it when I saw him playing a few weeks after our first meeting — after which he finally joined).

I can’t overstate what a great, down-to-earth guy Paul always was — generous with his knowledge, and just an all-around wonderful presence.

RIP.

[EKE BBB]

RIP 😔