Born in Sharon, Pennsylvania on June 9, 1945, Mick Goodrick was a jazz guitarist who also spent much of his career as a teacher. Inspired by rock ‘n’ roll icon Elvis Presley, he took up guitar as a pre-teen but turned his attention to jazz after attending a Stan Kenton Band Camp at the age of 16. Mick Goodrick attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts from 1963 until 1967, returning as a teacher and taught several future acclaimed guitarists including Bill Frisell, John Scofield, Julian Lange, and Mike Stern. He also served as a sideman for many artists in the early-to-mid 1970s including Woody Herman, Michael Gibbs, Jack DeJohnette, and Gary Burton. Signing with ECM Records, Mick Goodrick released In Pas(s)ing, his first album as a leader, in 1979. He then recorded two albums with the jazz quartet Con Brio – Con Brio (1983) and The Ray (1987) – as well as albums with Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnette. Mick Goodrick also published the book The Advancing Guitarist: Applying Guitar Concepts and Techniques in 1987. He returned to recording as a leader with the albums Biorythms (1990), Rare Birds with Joe Diorio (1993), Sunscreams (1994), In the Same Breath with Dave Liebman and Wolfgang Muthspiel (1996) , and Noisy Old Men with John Abercrombie and Steve Swallow (2002). He also served as a sideman for Claudio Fasoli, Pino Daniele, Harvie Swartz, Jim Hall, Mika Pohjola, and Charlie Mariano. Between 2003 and 2012, he published six more books including three volumes of the Mr. Goodchord’s Almanac of Guitar Voice-Leading for the Year 2001. Mick Goodrick and Pat Metheny appeared as a duo at the Montreux Festival in 2005 and then Mick Goodrick performed with Wolfgang Muthspiel on the album Live at the Standard (2010). Suffering from Parkinson's disease, Mick Goodrick died on November 16, 2022, at the age of 77.
