Feebles, Fables and Ferns captures a rare one-time coming together of luminaries Mick Goodrick and Fred Hersch, both active in Boston at the time, recorded in Hersch’s studio in New York, August 1988. Looking back at the session in 2025, Hersch notes how “the highlight to me is just the level of ensemble playing. There was a lot of profound listening going on between the both of us.” The expansive grasp of both musicians’ language and expressive abilities on their respective instruments is to the fore throughout this rich programme.

Released in 1978 on Manfred Eicher's iconic ECM Records imprint, In Pas(s)ing stands as the legendary, profoundly influential, and only leader date for the label by master jazz guitarist and educator Mick Goodrick. Highly revered as a guitar guru who shaped generations of players at Berklee (including Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell), Goodrick uses this stellar session to manifest a breathtakingly airy, cerebral, and impressionistic masterpiece. For this landmark quartet date, he gathers an absolute dream team of modern creative music titans: British multi-reed explorer John Surman, bass virtuoso Eddie Gomez, and the incomparable, deeply polyrhythmic drum giant Jack DeJohnette. The interplay among the ensemble is spellbindingly fluid, drifting effortlessly through vast, spacious sonic landscapes. Goodrick’s liquid, chorus-tinged guitar chords and delicate single-note lines form an exquisite harmonic web, beautifully countered by Surman's soaring soprano sax or brooding bass clarinet. Moving from the intricate, driving lines of Pedalpusher to the melancholic, crystalline title track, this pristine recording is a masterclass in atmospheric group intuition and a timeless cornerstone of the ECM aesthetic.

As well as being the great vibraphone innovator of the era, Gary Burton is known for his unparalleled intuition as a talent scout. In 1973, The New Quartet introduced Abraham Laboriel: this was the first recording of the bassist who would soon become one of the most in-demand session players across all genres. “It must be emphasised that Laboriel sounds like a major artist in the making with his astonishing bass work,” wrote Melody Maker. Guitarist Mick Goodrick also emerged as a player to watch on this album, shining in a well-conceived programme with compositions of Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Carla Bley, Mike Gibbs and bandleader Burton.

This is a remarkable album of duets with fellow jazz guitar virtuoso and educator, Mick Goodrick. There are six standards and six originals which, the producer's liner notes say, 'were all improvised and composed at the very moment I was pushing the record button on my tape machine.' Joe and Mick sound destined to play together, so well do they combine on this album. They push the boundaries with free improvisations and play the standards as well - but in a fresh way.
At times on this album, the two players abandon the convention of one player comping and the other soloing and instead, play in counterpoint - weaving single lines around each other - eg. 'Counterpoint Carnival/Manha de Carnival' and the gripping 'Rare Birds'…