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Eskasoni's Cremo a fiddling legend
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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