This album illuminates especially well another phase of Garner magic: the composer. No less than four new Garner works are unveiled here, and they demonstrate his scope. Garner has many strings on his compositional bow. Consider ONE GOOD TURN, a joyful gospel-tinged Sunday morning piece which brings into focus a gospel touch that often has found its way into Garner's work. This is a carryover from Garner's boyhood when he played in the sanctified church tents. The organ and tambourine accompaniment on ONE GOOD TURN adds spice to one of the most rousing performances of this or any season.
NIGHTWIND, a lovely ballad, is in the romantic genre of MISTY, DREAMY, and so many other Garner compositions, while MUCHO GUSTO is an energy-charged, percussive Latin-flavored romp that swings ferociously. Garner limns the blues in his new IT GETS BETTER EVERY TIME, which develops its melodic line with great intensity. Composer or improviser, Garner is always the supreme melodist.
Aside from the originals, there are standards old and new, all infused with the Garner spirit. He makes a new, profoundly moving contemporary experience out of the classic Jerome Kern YESTERDAYS; marks Gershwin year by giving SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME an unexpectedly bright hue that swings tremendously (Garner imparts incredible swing to tempos that turn soggy in other hands); takes CLOSE TO YOU through kaleidoscopic transformations, stretching it, kneading it, tossing it around, dancing with it, painting it blue, fading it, wringing it out, resolving it. And he makes I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU into an ethereal yet rhythmically impelling trip, creating that special Garner flow you can lean back and let yourself float on, buoyed by the steady left-hand beat, caressed by the serpentine right-hand inventions —the Yin and Yang of this cosmically whole artist.
Fittingly, the first tune cut on this session was WATCH WHAT HAPPENS, a title that spells out the theme of any Garner performance. He'll take you far out, show you places you've never been to, but will always bring you back home. "Garner seems to take the entire keyboard up into his hands, shuffle it like a deck of cards, and then spread the keys out again to suit his own creative needs," a perceptive reviewer once wrote. French critics have dubbed Garner "the man with forty fingers."
I have cited Garner's capacity for permanent innovation as one of the most astounding aspects of his magic. Another is the fact that he has found his following-a huge, world wide one of all ages and backgrounds-without ever having compromised his art. In our world, in our time, that takes a magician indeed.
Original Liner Notes by Dan Morgenstern
