Word: wizard
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...Roth and Cassandra Wilson on a list of America's best artists? Well, 75 years ago, many critics thought jazz wasn't an art; 50 years ago, they derided rock; 25 years ago, they went after rap. In the '70s and '80s, DJs such as Kool Herc and Grand Wizard Theodore helped established DJing as an integral part of hip-hop culture. Craze is taking the genre further. People dance to DJs, but "turntablists" like Craze they stand and listen to, they study, they admire as they might a jazz soloist. Craze's sets are meticulously planned and carefully executed...
...Iridium, a basement jazz club across from Lincoln Center in Manhattan, Les Paul sidles up a narrow aisle between tables. He is smaller, more gnomish, but still recognizably the wizard of Waukesha, the garage mechanic's son who revolutionized the way music was played and recorded. And since he turned 86 just two days before, and is looking forward to celebrating his birthday with some famous friends, Paul has a special glow. He sits on a stool surrounded by a few admiring musicians and starts playing 'Over the Rainbow' on one of his famous guitars...
...sounds awful! Has the Wizard misplaced his magic? No, it's just a wand glitch: one guitar string, offensively flat, needs to be tightened. And now that it is, Paul can make terrific music, recalling his '50s hits with vocalist Mary Ford as well as his earlier and later jazz and country work. He plays 'Rainbow' largo, insinuating a delicate, wistful mood, then pricking it with a couple of puckish allusions to late-'50s guitar hits inspired by him: the monster chords of Link Wray's 'Rumble,' the seductive electronic weeping in Santo and Johnny's 'Sleep Walk.' Paul...
...When they are not calling him Wizard (a tribute to his magical offensive abilities), the Mariners gleefully refer to Ichiro as Ichiballs. He has learned a variety of English curse words, plus some of America's most useless phrases. Rookie reliever Ryan Franklin taught Ichiro to say "chillin' like Bob Dylan...
...Wizard smiled. It might not be his country, but he knows who's in control...