Ted Joans Born: July 4, 1928 Place of Birth: Cairo, Illinois Ted Joans was born Theodore Jones on July 4, 1928 on a riverboat in Cairo, Illinois. His father, a riverboat entertainer, put him off the boat in Memphis at age twelve and gave him a trumpet. He is a painter, a trumpeter, and a jazz poet. His jazz poems are collected in a book called Black Pow-Wow. He earned a degree in Fine Arts from ...