For those unaware, 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, in August 1988.

Looking back at the session almost four decades later, 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 program.

“Mick was a pretty modest guy. And he was very under-recorded,” Fred remembers. “I call him the guitar whisperer; He was very content to teach, be behind the scenes. That was kind of his way of doing things. And towards the end of the era of my recording studio, which was ca. 1983-88, I asked him to come down and record some duets with me. So he came to NYC and we made this duo thing and it just worked out on the spot.”

Goodrick was neither a very prolific composer nor did he record abundantly throughout his life, making each entry to his discography a rare window into his craft, and here his pioneering approach to guitar improvisation, which was influential to everyone from Lionel Loueke to Wolfgang Muthspiel and Julian Lage, is on full display. Lage, who studied under Goodrick, has noted how the guitarist “had an extraordinary way of unpacking problems by listening attentively and then offering organic and often surprising solutions. There was no limit to what he wanted to share.”

Hersch and Goodrick’s intimate dialogues lay bare the qualities that have earned both men a reputation as leading mentors in improvisation. Previously known compositions by the pianist and the guitarist appear in concentrated guises, with Goodrick’s album-title-lending “Feebles, Fables and Ferns” (recorded for his ECM date In Pas(s)ing ten years earlier) offering a focused glimpse at the playfully intertwined lines the two spin around each other on the go.

Joining the originals are inspired passes at two Steve Swallow compositions (“Falling Grace” & “Amazing”), Grant Green’s “Out Of Nowhere”, “Soul Eyes” by Mal Waldron as well as a suite of spontaneous improvisations following each other on “Five Excursions”.

1. Feebles, Fables and Ferns [05:06]
2. Falling Grace [04:05]
3. Away 10 / Amazing [06:13]
4. Five Excursions [09:14]
5. Out of Nowhere [04:02]
6. Heartsong [04:49]
7. Soul Eyes [05:27]

Hersch and Goodrick’s intimate dialogues lay bare the qualities that have earned both men a reputation as leading mentors in improvisation, and those qualities are soon delighted in with the new recording opening on the beautifully dainty title cut Feebles, Fables and Ferns and then we get gifted the luxuriant Falling Grace and the elegant Away 10 / Amazing.

Up next is the graceful Five Excursions which is itself backed seamlessly by the resoundingly opulent, near ten minute Out of Nowhere, the set rounding out on the emotive Heartsong, coming to a close on the luxuriant Soul Eyes.

Fred: “Even though there’s some beautiful, intimate, quiet moments, there’s still a lot of energy. And there’s something very romantic about that unadorned, unembellished, just straight in, go-ahead-and-record-sound to it. We really were a very good match…”

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