'Once
you hear a Lee Cremo tune you know who it is.'
By
Stephen Cooke / Entertainment Reporter
Halifax
Herald
Cape
Breton has lost a champion.
Fellow
musicians, friends and neighbours of Eskasoni fiddler
Lee
Cremo were shocked and saddened to learn of his death on
Sunday
at the age of 60.
A
musician since the age of seven, when he learned to play at
the
knee of his father Simon Cremo, Lee was a musical
ambassador
for Cape Breton and the Mi'kmaq of Eskasoni,
playing
everywhere from the Hollywood Bowl to Nashville,
where
he was often ranked among the top 10 fiddlers in the
world
at annual competitions.
"His
music, that's how people will remember him," said
Eskasoni's
fiddling barber George Paul, who toured with Cremo
in
the late '50s and played with him often at dances and
social
gatherings. "The whole community will miss him."
Cremo's
style was unique, combining a powerful bowing arm
with
an encyclopedic memory of Mi'kmaq, Irish and Scottish
music.
"He
had a wealth of knowledge of music," recalls fiddler
Jerry
Holland.
"And
he was full of wonderful stories about his father and
how
he was carrying on that tradition."
Besides
his father, Cremo also learned from Wilfred Prosper
and
Neil Francis MacLellan, and soaked up the music of Cape
Breton
fiddling legends like Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald and
Dan
Hughie MacEachern at local dances.
"If
I had the money, I'd go in," Cremo once told
composer/historian
Allister MacGillivrey. "If not, I'd sit
outside
by the window and listen and learn."
He
learned, and he passed his knowledge along. Today's Cape
Breton
musical stars like Creignish fiddlers Ashley and Lisa
MacIsaac
and Troy's Natalie MacMaster all picked up tips from
him.
But nobody played quite like him.
"Once
you hear a Lee Cremo tune, you know who it is," said
Eskasoni
musician, and former Cremo bandmate, Richard
Poulette
of the band Morning Star.
"His
tunes included 32nd notes and 64th notes . . . they're
very
hard to do. His style couldn't really be copied; if
someone
else could play like him it would be a miracle."
Credited
for his natural humour and charm, Cremo was often a
fixture
at public events like Treaty Day celebrations or
Maritime
Oldtime Fiddling Contests, where he was rarely at a
loss
for words.
"When
it comes to talking, I never stop," he once said. "If I
run
out of words in English, I continue in Mi'kmaq. If they
can't
understand, that's their problem."
Ironically,
Cremo's death comes during the Celtic Colours
festival,
when the whole island is celebrating Cape Breton's
unique
musical heritage. Many who have been touched by his
playing
will attend the funeral at 11 a.m. on Thursday at
Holy
Family Parish in Eskasoni.
"The
whole world is going to be there," said Poulette. "I
called
people all over when I heard, and they were
devastated."
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Copyright © 1999 The Halifax Herald Limited
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