Ted Joans

Wow! Ted Joans Lives!

Wow! Ted Joans Lives! is a visual and aural collage by Kurt Hemmer and Tom Knoff examining the life and works of the legendary, tri-continental poet Ted Joans, who was born in Cairo, Illinois on 4 July 1928 and went on to become one of the significant poets of his generation performing his work in the United States, Europe, and Africa. The film has the sound of jazz and the flavor of surrealism. As Ted Joans declared, "Jazz is my religion and Surrealism is my point of view."
Official Selection of the 2013 Langston Hughes Film Festival.

Honorable Mention/The Los Angeles International Underground Film Festival.

Aurora Award/Platinum Best of Show/2011.

Berkeley Film and Video Festival/Grand Festival Award-Arts/2010.

Jazz Poems, published 1980 by S Press as tape #72, Kuckucksnest Schwelm, Germany, November 3, 1979

Written versions of the poems in: Black Pow Wow (1969), Afrodisia (1970), Vergriffen oder Blitzlieb Poems (1979)

Musicians: Uli Espenlaub (Keyboards), Andreas Leep (bass), Dietrich Rauschtenberger (drums), Ralf Falk (guitar)

• Side A (31:28): MP3
• Contains: 1.The Truth, 2.Jazz Is My Religion, 3.You Show - I Show, 4.Bed, 5.Ouagadougou Ouagadougou, 6.I Am The Lover, 7.Nine Month Blues, 8.Die Wahrheit (The Truth)
• Side B (37:06): MP3
• Contains: 1.The Truth, 2.Africa, 3.Why Try?, 4.The .38, 5.Long Gone Lover Blues, 6.Schwelm Blues

Performing in Amsterdam, 1964

Video excerpted from the Louis van Gasteren film, Jazz & Poetry.

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to Harper College. © 2014 Harper College. Distributed by PennSound.