Jim Jones R.I.P.

Longtime Cleveland resident, friend , artist and photographer , and noted International musician Jim Jones is dead at the age of fifty seven, a few weeks shy of his Fifty eight birthday.

Known by many , loved by all. Jim passed away in his comfy chair at home on the evening of Monday February 18th.

Jim's health had been in severe decline these past few years... A familiar figure on the Cleveland and global musical scene. Jim was a creative force in such noted bands as Pere Ubu, and The Easter Monkeys...

I first encountered the peace loving Mister Jones in the late nineteen sixties when he was an employee of the downtown Cleveland Record Rendezvous store located at 300 Prospect Avenue. Jim was a full-time member of the Cleveland underground scene. At that time Jim wore his locks long and appeared to be the doppleganger for the Dutch Boy paint poster boy with longer flowing locks, and seemingly jumped off the paint can into life. I was employed at the time by Kay's Bookstore a few Prospect storefronts away.

We would often visit each others place of employment on lunch hour. Jim having a keenly developed appreciation for all matter of aesthetics pertaining to cinema , literature, and a consummate bibliophile.

We often attended many of the same rock and roll events and after parties. Sitting together in the last balcony row of Cleveland's Music Hall for David Bowie's initial United States concert September 22nd, 1972.

We were both happy to be there courtesy of RCA records, and often joked afterwards for years how that with all the hype and media juice poured into the Bowie concert launch , that the event was over before it began... Indeed, rock music was over for quite sometime the following year with the release of The Stooges RAW POWER , which was recorded in London, England during that very September 1972 week while Bowie premiered Ziggy Stardust in Cleveland"s Music Hall.

Year's later, Jimmy introduced me to English music critic Jon Savage who proceeded to play for the three of us the freshly produced 1997 version in Jimmy's kitchen music nook. We were blown away by the Iggy version as opposed to the muddy 1973 Bowie produced version of RAW POWER... When Captain Beefheart played Cleveland's Club in the early 1970's we were there.

[Ry Cooder opened this Warner Brothers sponsored small venue tour.]

Ditto Jones was in the tent for many of the Musicarnival shows , including the notable theater in the round Mothers of Invention tent show in 1970.Jimmy was fond of bestowing crafty self made cd mix tapes of various musical artists as gifts , and his kindness in this chapter of his creative life the material of legends....Such diverse musical taste did JJ possess.

Richard Thompson and Marianne Faithfull from stem to stern, all forms of worldly worthy music. A clever palate of Middle Eastern ragas and guezels, served up with African and Latin flavors, musical stews from Jamaica, and Island ska for kicks.

Jim Jones was a musical scholar of no small talent. Truly an encyclopedic and intuitive genius and artist. A gracious host. Polite , well-mannered man. Story teller of retail days spent with fellow clerk and full processed soulful brother Cecil Stewart.

Carnivalesque outrageous full process hairdo Cecil baby. Leo Mintz, who is said to have first coined the phrase "rock and roll" , was the balding , cigarette in the chops , hard drinking owner that assigned the vue tasks , putting away orders , working the counters and his prowess spawned the ancient wooden 78, 45, and 33 and 1/3 listening booths.

It was still a do at the vue to spin a 78r.p.m. jump blues record from the nineteen fifties in the year nineteen eighty!

Jimmy could imitate Leo's gravely camel-throated husky blasts to a turn. The vue was located between two Greek bar and food joints: The Clock and The Columbia.

We drank copiously and ate decent sit-down fare along the lines of meats, potatoes, and salads at both restaurants. Leo Mintz drank at both Clock and Columbia, amid giant plumes of smoke and shots of strong libation being quaffed by all who could afford.

The street flower vendor trade met every working evening at the clock to settle up and hand off the leftover limpid flowery dollar and down trade ending in bars closing hours , and then the after hours. Nightlife people. Jimmy walked with understanding among the street circus characters of lower Prospect and around the Central Market for many years.

Jimmy told all kinds of great stories about many aspects of his life. His powers of memory very sucinct. We were fortunate to have Mister Jones as a member of the Old Erie Street Book Store staff in the nineteen nineties.

His great ability to organize and hand-sell books was a pleasure to witness. Working with Jimmy was a pleasant study in his calm intelligent humble presence with clients -- Many of whom still inquire concerning him to this day.

His ability to catalog and describe books for sale came natural. If I had the presence of mind to take the book business online in the late 1990's as Jimmy suggested, we would be better off today. Yes, Jimmy was that kind of human. A class act in the old school fashion.

Mister Jones always in possession of an active mind and acerbic wit tempered with gallows humor...

Our Mother's cooked from the same Betty Crocker cookbooks during our formative years in the nineteen fifties and early sixties, we discovered years later. Jimmy was often a visitor to our home for meals around the Holidays , and was a favorite of our Family ... Now those of us who knew and loved him will find a darker visage to great our days. Jimmy was not a fan of the modern changes that occurred in downtown Cleveland and was vocal in his criticism.

He preferred Otto Moser's on East Fourth Street not Playhouse Square . Felt that Captain Frank's seafood restaurant belonged on East Ninth Street, not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He pined for a breakfast again at the former Nahra's Restaurant once located at East Second and Prospect. Describing Nahras as "complete with steaming vats of corned beef and potatoes boiling away in its windows alone were enough to take the chill from a cold and windy Cleveland's day".

Jimmy's had a special love for canine's and always kept a hound or two about.

His latest pair "Sammi the meathound ' , and the confused canine " Rollo" , both survive him..... Now we face a number of cold and sad days without the staid comfort of Mister Jones friendship and place in our collective lives. I will admit to deep sadness with Jim's passing.

Believe me folks it hurts to lose one of your own . A chill wind blows down Prospect Avenue today , The VUE is shuttered , most of the old familiar places and faces have left town. Our world is a bit sadder today. Jimmy takes his great tales with him, and though a few of us may attempt to account some of them. Jimmy told them best! A gentle pisces , whose passage occurred within his astrological season.

A service and tribute will follow. May Jimmy now rest in peace. He will not be forgotten.

---