Mick Goodrick

Mick Goodrick is somebody who really had an effect on me. At the time I was playing in Gary Burton's band, he was the other guitar player, and he played with such incredible depth. There is a kind of awareness in the way he listens, both as a musician and as a person who invites engagement and communication.“ – Pat Metheny

Mick Goodrick (1945-2022), hailed during his lifetime as “technically among the finest players around” by Downbeat magazine and called “an inconspicuous guru of jazz guitar” by WRTI’s David R. Adler, was a sought-after performer, composer and educator who profoundly impacted several generations of guitarists around the world. Known for his special attention to chord structures and harmonic control, Mick always put a special emphasis on accompaniment in his teaching:

“For the most part, I [...]

“For the most part, I think I got hired because of my comping,” he has said. “And that’s one of the things I still encourage of my students. If you can make someone sound good, maybe they’ll hire you again. The person who is comping has the best job. That person is really the head of the rhythm section, the liaison between bass and drums and the soloist. Plus we also get to solo.”

He first came to ECM as part of Gary Burton’s groups, joining the vibraphonist on his albums Ring (1974), Dreams So Real (1975) and Easy As Pie (1981). On the seminal Dreams So Real, the guitarist and Burton play the music of Carla Bley with Steve Swallow and Bob Moses as the rhythm section, as well as Pat Metheny on second guitar. At the time of its release, Melody Maker raved, “outside of his trail-blazing 1967 quartet, it’s the strongest line-up Burton has ever fronted,” also noting “its subtle strengths and sense of swing”.

In Pas(s)ing, his only leader-date for the label, saw him collaborate with saxophonist John Surman, Eddie Gomez on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. In its retrospective review of the album, Jazzwise observed how “this 1978 ECM session with an A-list quartet already indicates how provocative his accompaniments were and how inventively he folds solo lines into oddball chords,“ calling the album “a one-off US/UK post-bop session of real character”.

Goodrick also appears on Charlie Haden’s Ballad Of The Fallen (1983), and with Steve Swallow’s ensembles on Deconstructed (1997) and Always Pack Your Uniform (2000), the latter of which were released on the XtraWatt label.

Nobody has confronted this instrument as fearlessly and doggedly as Mick – Steve Swallow