I'll miss him a lot. For the past couple of years I have opened up one of his albums for Mardi Gras weekend. I was planning to do it again this year with his Ballads album, but maybe I'll get to that one now.
When I was a senior in college, I had the first Dreams album (self-titled), which included Mike, Randy and John Abercrombie. I liked it a lot and persuaded a friend to buy it as well. I'm not sure if that was his first recording, but I'm not aware of an earlier one.
One of my favorite albums, I've said this many times, is Mike Nock's In Out & Around, which was a quartet date with Mike B, George Mraz and Al Foster. I felt that his first album on Impulse! was a pale imitation of that one. Too bad it didn't get more promotion (It was on Timeless as I recall).
RIP