RIP JIM MENDES

[jockitch]

Before my time but turnto10.com has the story. He had been a WJAR employee for more than 40 years. I assume this included WJAR radio since he was a jazz expert. Not sure if he did any TV. He died at the age of 80. Maybe when Les gets around here he'll have more info on Jim.

Modifying my post after a google,I surprisingly didn't turn up with much other than that Jim,a Cape Verdean American,described himself as "the first black DJ in RI". He hosted a long running jazz show that also addressed concerns of the Cape Verdean community. That's about it so I assume we're talking 1950s & 60s.

 

[chattypattyri]

He was on TV. Right up until the early 80s.
He was a soft spoken conservative type man. He dearly loved Jazz.
For decades he and Franz Lebert did the voice overs for TV 10 and some of WJAR radio.
He will be missed. A voice like no other. God bless you Jazzy Jim!.
Sincerely,
Chatty.

 

[AKLes]

Before my time but turnto10.com has the story. He had been a WJAR employee for more than 40 years. I assume this included WJAR radio since he was a jazz expert. Not sure if he did any TV. He died at the age of 80. Maybe when Les gets around here he'll have more info on Jim.

Modifying my post after a google,I surprisingly didn't turn up with much other than that Jim,a Cape Verdean American,described himself as "the first black DJ in RI".

Though I knew Jim in passing I did not know him well. He started, I believe, at WICE (1290) in the era of Sherm Strickhauser. Overnights...."Mendes after Midnight" where he was able to do a little with jazz before the station went over to a hard and fast all rock format. Indeed he was the first black DJ in Rhode Island. At one time he was doing a book about his experiences and mutual friends once told me he was using a working title of: "Fly In a Milk Bottle". I never saw even a draft but the title is, well, just so JIM. It wasn't easy for a black man going to and from a midnight shift (the old WICE studio was in The Crown Hotel at #10 Dorrance Street). Another comtemporary mutual friend, Gene Flynn (used the air name "Gene Cramer") used to hang out with Jim and they were frequently stopped by Providence police who were very suspicious of two young men, one black, one white, driving downtown at the wee hours.

There was also a close link with a gentleman I remember only as "Carl" or "Karl" who ran an all-jazz record shop out on North Main Street between Beacon Records and downtown. For a long time if Jim wasn't actually at work you'd have about a 50-50 chance of finding him there.

Jim and "Big Sherm" used to spend a fair bit of off-time together; I used to encounter them at the old Schwarz Wald House German restaurant on Route 6 in Seekonk. Big eaters, all of us, in those days and always welcomed by the owners who were very protective of those two guys who were easily recognized by listeners.

Not too many left of "our" generation....

 

[epsilon]

There was also a close link with a gentleman I remember only as "Carl" or "Karl" who ran an all-jazz record shop out on North Main Street between Beacon Records and downtown.

Carl's Diggins?

 

[DG02816]

Yup, the record shop was indeed Car'ls Diggins, at 759 No. Main St in Providence. It was owned by the late Carl Henry, an icon in his own right...


Dave Gardiner

WVCH 740/WNWR 1540

Philadelphia

 

[epsilon]

Nice article about Jim in this morning's ProJo

http://www.projo.com/lifebeat/content/projo_20060801_mendes.17764c1.html