Jimmy Manolides, a Seattle musician and art curator, dies at 76

Originally published May 10, 2016 at 3:06 pm Updated May 13, 2016 at 2:21 pm

Jimmy Manolides, who opened one of the first galleries in Pioneer Square and played bass in rock groups the Frantics and Junior Cadillac, has died at 76.

Jimmy Manolides, 76, an early Seattle art curator, rock ’n’ roll bass player for The Frantics and Junior Cadillac, and gregarious bohemian bartender, has died.

Jimmy Manolides, who opened one of the first galleries in Pioneer Square during its 1970s revitalization and played  in the ’50s rock group the Frantics — and later with roots-rock revivalists Junior Cadillac — died Monday, May 9. He was 76.

The cause was a stroke, which he had three weeks ago, according to his sister, Sandy Parnell. Mr. Manolides had been living in Ocean Shores for 13 years and died in Hoquiam.

An effervescent bohemian, Mr. Manolides was known in the ’70s and ’80s to jazz fans as the gravel-voiced bartender with a million stories at Parnell’s jazz club, owned by Roy Parnell, Sandy Parnell’s late husband. In the 1990s, Manolides was a familiar figure behind the counter at Nickel Cigar, on Yesler Avenue, formerly the Manolides Gallery.

Born in Seattle, Mr. Manolides was the son of King County Deputy Prosecutor and Seattle District Court Judge Evans Manolides. Jimmy Manolides went to Ballard High School and began playing with The Frantics. A self-taught musician, he graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in art, was drafted, and served in the U.S. Army as an art instructor at Fort Dix, N.J. When he came home, he opened the Manolides Gallery.

“Jimmy was a bigger-than-life kind of guy, so naturally gifted with his music, his art,” Parnell said.

Mr. Manolides also loved golf and owned race horses — among them, Savannah Blue Jeans, a competitor at theLongacres racetrack in Renton, which closed in 1992.

About eight years ago, Parnell said, Mr. Manolides became a Christian and started playing keyboard at the Galilean Lutheran Church in Ocean Shores.

“Before you knew it, there was a ‘Jimmy Service,’ where he added his rock ’n’ roll touch to every gospel song he played,” she said.

Mr. Manolides married four times. He is survived by a son, Louie Manolides, 36, of Renton; his sister Sandy Parnell, 70, of Lynnwood; a niece and nephew; and two grandchildren.

A service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 15, at the Galilean Lutheran Church, 824 Ocean Shores Blvd. N.W., in Ocean Shores.

Paul de Barros: 206-464-3247;

Dear Sir,

I want to add a few things about Jimmy Manolides that were not mentioned in your obituary published last Tuesday May 10, 2016.

These are quotes taken from an article written  about  Jimmy in 1984 by Regina Hackett who was then the Art and Music critic for the PI.

"Unquestionably, Manolides is a bona fide local celebrity alternatingly charming his way into power and insulting his way out of it. 

He grew up in Ballard, a grade school wise guy renowned for his musical savvy.  He introduced his cronies to saxophonists Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, Sonny Stitt and Ornette Cobb.  Hanging around in his parents' garage, he accompanied Spike Jones Records on washboards, tin cans and car horns.

When rock 'n' roll hit the mid 50s he was ready.  'The kind of rock 'n' roll I liked was kid jazz' he said, 'with saxophones in it.'  He thought of rock n roll as the musical minor leagues and wasted no time suiting up."...

Jimmy Manolides has the kind of voice alley cats defer to.  Harsh and gravelly, it digs into a melody the way a jackhammer digs into a street...

Success came easy and he's been a fixture on the rock n roll scene ever since, starting as bass player in the Frantics, playing with Jr. Cadillac, the Hardly Everly Brothers, and Les Follies a group of local musical all stars that plays only a couple of times a year...

On a shoestring budget, he has managed to become a wheeler dealer at the racetrack, owning a hefty percentage of such race horses as Savanna Blue Jeans and Vamp of Savanna...

The idea that a born-to-rock-'n'-roll good time guy could open an art gallery that would have a significant impact on high-art culture seems plausible today but must have been a novelty item in 1968, when Manolides return to Seattle after a stint in the Army and opened his space.

He was, however, interested in the same thing in art that moved him in music.  He responded to humor, outrageousness and funky color...

Fortunately for him, his gallery opened at the same time as Northern California funk artists hit their stride. In introducing artists such as William T. Wiley, Roy DeForest, Clayton Bailey, David Gilhooly and Irv Tepper to this area, Manolides was in the right place at the right time. 

His gallery also offered local artists working the madcap vein a place to show.  Howard Kottler, Fred Baure, Patti Warashina, Richard Marquis and T. Michael Gardiner all got the chance to show their work in a sympathetic context. "

Jimmy Manolides played a very important role in Seattle's music and art history.  I just thought this should be added to the information already published.

Liz Chenoweth

Another story that Jimmy emailed me on 10-15-2013 and a drawing of the house by (I think) Les LePere:

 "pertaining to mead street:

various things pop into my head about that house and the way things happened.  in pioneer square was a handy man that worked for the underground tours.  he was a cigarette smoker, and i guess that's how i got to know him.  (can't even recall his name at the moment.  dave something)  anyway, he came at an affordable rate, and helped me at the house with certain electrical issues.  on one of the jobs he did for me, he brought along an assistant that was a lesbian woman.  it was to be her last job working for him as she and a couple of her friends were about to embark on a business adventure.  it was to be an adult bookstore and toy shop they would call "toys in babeland".  knowing her (but not in the Biblical sense) i of course patronized her new store.  it is where i acquired those two glass dildos that you saw on the window sill in the attic, among other things of a more pedestrian nature.  i have always referred to shops that deal in those and similar products with a term borrowed from an episode of fawlty towers.  it came at some point in the episode of the man that had died in his sleep. the term is "prophylactic emporium"   a couple other curious things about mead street were the bottle fences, and the alley "takeover".   i think i would rather describe these when i see you if you are interested.   materials frequently dictate design.     pacific iron on 4th avenue south for a long time was a very interesting building materials outlet that dealt in a lot of both salvage and liquidation at excellent prices, in many cases somewhat negotiable.  accordingly, i spent a good deal of time shopping there while involved in the major remodel.  one day i noticed a ten foot long piece of maple kitchen counter that had been removed from a restaurant at less than ten cents on the dollar.  needless to say, i snapped it up and it became part of my new kitchen.  not long after that, one morning while returning to the cigar store from the bank, i noticed that this little greasy spoon on occidental park was remodeling and had thrown out two similar maple counters of about seven feet in length.  they were simply leaning up against the dumpster, so i hurried to get my truck and snagged them.  gratis.  while chris was refurbishing the old garage, he recalled having seen a classified ad for some very large doors that had great panes of etched glass in them.  they had come out of the mirabeaux restaurant atop the rainier tower.  we should be able to discover some photos of how they looked as part of the project.  also at the same time, pacific iron had an ample supply of tongue and groove hemlock boards that were to become not only the floor for the garage, but the ceiling in the house remodel.  while designing the cigar store, he noticed another classified ad for 30 some odd sheets of walnut paneling, which i bought for $300.  the same material from a retail supplier would have cost $3,000. plus tax.  as you have seen, the serendipitous availability of certain sinks had a lot to do with the design of both the kitchen and bath here at amen corner. back to mead street, during a certain period of time, a lumber yard on rainier avenue had advertised on their marquee fir flooring "seconds".  that material became a herringbone floor in the old part of the house covering both living room and bedroom. leftovers from that project were used to create the tall tower in the garden that you saw a picture of last week. at another lumber yard on mlk way and just off rainier, i one day discovered a great stack of well weathered 6 x 10 timbers of various lengths, none shorter than ten feet.  these i was also able to get at "a steal", and they became an integral part of the gardens at mead street.  one morning while shopping at eagle hardware on rainier, i noticed a large dolly stacked with more than enough clear cedar 2x4s to build a 200 square foot deck.  it was leftover material from their having just erected their display at the home show, and i was the lucky one to grab it at less than ten cents on the dollar.  the chips have fallen my way so many times it is hard to fathom.  yet another feature in the remodel of mead street were the windows.  i had gone out to this place near lynnwood that manufactured custom windows and found in their "boneyard" four extremely expensive windows that they had made a minor mistake in the building of same and was able to acquire them for $500, their value if perfect $3,200 or possibly more.  the result was exquisite to say the least.   and good morning to you.  i believe i will now return to my bed."