Keep on Keepin’ On: A Musical Journey Through A Magical Friendship

Written by Megan Scanlon

On Tuesday afternoon, Director Alan Hicks was generous with his time in front of an audience that expressed their admiration and appreciation for the first time filmmaker’s Keep On Keepin’ On, a documentary that took Hicks five years to make about the legendary jazz musician Clark Terry. “For me this whole process has been a big thank you to my teacher,” he said to the DOC NYC audience following the screening.

A drummer in Terry’s band, Hicks said, “I was just reading up on how you make a documentary and then we bought a camera and started shooting in the States and that’s how it went. We’d spend three months shooting, and then we’d run out of money and then I’d jump on a tour and play drums and my mate would go back to Australia and work and we’d do that for three months, save up and pool our money, shoot for three, work for three, shoot for three; we did that for a few years.”

When Clark began losing his eyesight, Hicks introduced him to blind piano player Justin Kauflin. “Justin came over, sat down and explained to Clark what it was like for him to go blind and it really calmed Clark down and that’s where their relationship started.”

Kauflin gravitated to the piano at a young age, and in the film, his parents recalled their son’s aspirations for his new vocation. “Man I wish something bad would happen to me so I could play the blues,” he mused.  When his mom questioned, “Well you just lost your vision, isn’t that bad?” and he replied, “nah that’s not that bad.”

Considered the greatest trumpet player there is, “You hear Clark, you hear his life; now only a master can do that and Clark is a master,” Herbie Hancock recalled in the film. An audience member asked Hicks about the lessons he learned during the making of the film. “When I first met Clark and I was studying with him I would always be like, why does this guy care about me? And then when I started doing these interviews with Herbie Hancock and all these guys (Quincy Jones, Diana Reeves, Wynton Marsalis), they’d say the same thing, they were always baffled, and I’ve since found out that that’s part of Clark’s trick, is that if a person of that level takes interest in you, you have to rise up, you have to, there’s nothing you can do about it, if you fail for that guy, you’re in big trouble!”

Hicks’ observations reverberate throughout a film that demonstrates astounding love and devotion. “Many of my dreams have come true, but I’ve learned that dreams change. To help young musicians make their dreams come true became my supreme joy and my greatest aspiration,” said Terry.

Before being selected for a Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute competition, Kauflin said, “I want to be a great jazz musician. But right now I’m just a nobody, just trying to figure things out.” Keep On Keepin’ On illuminates the friendship that grows between Terry and Kauflin  and how they brought out the best in each other to transcend the ordinary, in both their lives and in their music, and demonstrates what Terry’s longtime friend Quincy Jones said, “when someone believes in you it makes you believe in yourself.”

For more about Keep On Keepin’ On, visit the film page on the DOC NYC website.

Megan Scanlon is an alum of Hobart & William Smith Colleges and New York University and works in the field of International Education