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James Cheechoo
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| Biography: | |
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From the late 1600s to the early 20th century, James Bay was a destination point for Hudson Bay Company ships. With the ships came the Irish and Scots and their fiddle music. Fur trade outposts evolved into more permanent settlements; European men stayed and married Cree women. The fiddle gradually became accepted as a part of community life on the Bay, and according to Cree tradition, in this way spread among the Cree people. James is a self-taught fiddler, and one of the few remaining traditional James Bay Cree fiddlers, with a repertoire of traditional tunes that echoes an earlier time when the Cree and European cultures had merged upon a common social ground in various James Bay settlements during the fur trade era. The youngest of seven children, James grew up hearing his father and older siblings playing the fiddle and the old tunes at home, and took up the instrument at age 12. A two-sided handmade skin drum that was placed on the lap and played with two sticks traditionally accompanied tunes. There were special tunes for each square dance, step dance and jigging form. During the long hours of daylight in summer, community dances would go all night with three or four fiddlers taking turns. In the 1950s the phonograph introduced more modern fiddle tunes from points south. The guitar replaced the skin drum, and the dances changed The old tunes quickly fell out of favor. Now at the age of 68, James has retired from his trade as a carpenter, but his passion for traditional Cree fiddle music continues, and he hopes to raise awareness of its place in the history of the James Bay Cree. |
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| Similar Music: | |
| Cree, Canadian, Fiddle | |
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