[Dixielandjazz] Cy Laurie (was Wally Fawkes a birthday greeting)

[Bill Haesler]

> Danny Polo? 'Ci-devant' means 'once was'. As in 'lived a long time in England, but originally was  American'. I should use better vocabulary.

Dear Steve,
This old colonial is aware of the word 'Ci-devant’, which is why I wondered about the inclusion of an American, Danny Polo, in a list of British Trad clarinettists.
I discovered Johnny Dodds in the mid 1940s, and well aware of what Cy Laurie was on about.
He was 5 years older than me and we shared the same birth day. (As did Hitler.) Cy died in 2002, two days before his.
Claude Luter followed the same musical path, until Sidney Bechet came along.
 
> With regard to my being rude about Cy's clarinet work: I remember him as a very docile but enthusiastic fellow. But I was unhappy with his playing nothing  but the closest copy that he could get to Johnny Dodds. So I didn't like his playing and implied so in my e-mail.  I didn't like the singing of Vera Lynn or Bill Haley and the Comets. Or Beryl Bryden, come to that. Henry VIII was regarded as a great king, but I didn't like him.
> Am I not allowed to say so?

Of course you are.  
It was the way you “implied” it. 
"Cy Laurie, on the other hand, was a nutter who genuinely believed that he was the reincarnation of Johnny Dodds. He might have got away with that if he had been as good as Johnny Dodds, but unfortunately he was only as good as Cy Laurie.” 

And I’m sure we both agree about Hitler. And, presumably, ‘lists'.
Cheers,
Bill.