After a lawsuit involving his original label Columbia, Garner launched his own record label Octave, in collaboration with his longtime manager Martha Glaser. The recordings Garner made for Octave include some of the finest music of his career, yet because this indie operation lacked the distribution and media clout of a major label, these albums never got the attention they deserved. For many years, these tracks were out-of-print and seldom heard. Magician is one of those recordings, and a prime example of all of the things that made Garner special: his crazy quilt of piano techniques, his unflagging energy, his grunts and exclamations (always a sign that he is playing at top form), and his larger-than-life personality. It would, sadly, be his last album.