Preceding Plays Gershwin and Kern, the concluding record in this reissue series of Garner's Octave recordings (reviewed in the July issue) by three years, Magician is (according to the folk at Mack Avenue) Garner's last studio session. As he launches into an atonal opening to Bacharach and David's ‘Close To You’, there's a sense he might be stepping into new and dangerous territory, but after a few bars we relapse into the comfortable mainstream groove of much of Garner's later work, compete with a rash of Latin conga accompaniment.

His own composition, the funky blues ‘It Gets Better’, is a throwback to his finest early 1950s playing, and reminds us just what a fine in-the-pocket player he could be, urged on by Cranshaw's electric bass. But lest this suggests the whole album is predictable or backward looking, Garner can still surprise us, as in the medium up-tempo pace of Gershwin's ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’, the heavy chordal statement of Jerome Kern's ‘Yesterdays’ or the gratuitous organ on ‘One Good Turn’.

The bonus over this album's previous incarnations is the hitherto unissued Garner composition ‘Grill on the Hill’, which doesn't fit on the LP, but which is available as a free download for vinyl buyers, and is a funky, romping 32-bar track, recorded at the original sessions. There's nothing as virtuosic as ‘Love Walked In’ from the Gershwin and Kern album here, but amid the predictable offerings are some nuggets of originality and Garner never disappoints in his ability to swing even the best-known tune into submission.