Mick Goodrick & Fred Hersch: Feebles, Fables And Ferns

Recorded in Fred Hersch's New York studio in August 1988, Feebles, Fables and Ferns captures a rare, one-time meeting between two luminaries who were both active in Boston at the time. That it has taken nearly four decades to reach the public is a question the music itself seems to answer: this is not the kind of recording that announces itself. It simply waits, patient and self-possessed. Notorious for shunning the limelight,Mick Goodrick—spent the bulk of his career as a celebrated teacher at Berklee rather than as a recording artist—he was never one to push his own work into circulation. Hersch, meanwhile, was still in the earlier stages of establishing his international reputation in 1988, though he was already regarded as a musician of exceptional gifts. The session, it seems, was simply filed away.

Looking back at the music almost four decades later, Hersch reflects that "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." That comment is worth holding onto, because it captures exactly what makes this album so distinctive. This is a record about restraint and mutual attention: the result is an atmosphere of concentration rather than spectacle, and that suits both players perfectly.

Goodrick's playing is especially persuasive in this context—subtle, probing, and harmonically expansive, but never cluttered. Hersch meets him with equal poise, shaping the music with a lyric touch and a pianist's gift for structuring space. They do not trade solos in any conventional sense; instead, they spin lines over, under, and through one another, instinctively vacating space the moment the other steps forward.

The opening track, "Feebles, Fables and Ferns," revisits a Goodrick composition first recorded for his 1978 ECM debut In Pas(s)ing —here reimagined in an entirely new light. The title track offers a focused glimpse at the playfully intertwined lines the two spin around each other on the spot. Goodrick opens with an understated motif, and when Hersch enters, a delicate counterpoint immediately takes shape between the two instruments.

Hersch's own composition "Heartsong" is played with luminous clarity, becoming an exercise in listening and empathy. The melody passes between guitar and piano so seamlessly that it occasionally sounds as though a single instrument is speaking. Johnny Green's "Out of Nowhere" and Mal Waldron's "Soul Eyes" reveal the deep historical roots both players share. On "Soul Eyes," Goodrick's guitar shimmers with a gentle, glowing modulation—a plush cushion for Hersch's romantic, sweeping lines.

"Five Excursions," a suite of entirely spontaneous, free-form improvisations, gives the album its loosest and most exploratory stretch, moving between abstraction and lyricism without ever losing its composure. Free improvisation can easily tilt toward aggressive friction, but here it remains remarkably lyrical, emphasising that the shared language these two musicians speak is rooted not merely in the jazz repertoire but in a mutual understanding of touch, timbre, and timing.

The sound, though recorded outside ECM's usual studios, fits naturally within the label's aesthetic. Every micro-interaction is preserved: the briefest pause before a chord change, the ringing decay of a piano string, the metallic breath of guitar strings. It feels less like a polished stage performance and more like a beautifully preserved sketchbook.

Goodrick died in November 2022, meaning he did not live to see this music finally reach the public. That makes Feebles, Fables and Ferns all the more moving as a document—a testament to his genius as a collaborator and to the kind of musical intelligence that quietly shaped generations of players without ever seeking the headlines. Together with Hersch, he left behind a quiet, arresting masterpiece of jazz dialogue: graceful, understated, and endlessly absorbing.

For listeners drawn to the inner skeins of jazz duet playing, or to ECM's most intimate productions, this is an essential recording.