An intimate and small scale documentary that chooses to focus on the personnel moments rather than the grand, Keep On Keepin' On is a lovely look into the way music affects people's lives and a fitting piece of memorability for the recently passed away Jazz legend Clark Terry.

Without professing to know much or in fact anything about the Jazz scene, Keepin On does a great job at making the audience feel a part of this musical movement thanks to Australian filmmaker Alan Hick's steady direction and Clark's wholly infectious love for the genre of music. Whether watching Clark in finely used stock footage or in his later bed ridden years, his knowledge and passion for Jazz is unwavering and his musical based friendship with blind piano player Justin Kauflin is a touching and poignantly captured relationship that is the heart and soul of this low key doco.

Justin is a likable presence and his easy going banter with CT is a joy to behold. It's clear to see that Justin's appearance in CT's life came at the opportune time and as CT begins to lose his vision due to years of battling diabetes the two Jazz loving men bond even tighter over there shared conditions and CT mentoring Justin to become the best he can be is both genuine and interesting. While much of Keepin On feels wholly legitimate and unflattering there are issues that stem from the fact you can't help but feel as in most documentaries that your being ever so slightly manipulated and the fact that long time Clark friend and fellow musician Quincy Jones is the producer of this film, there's high chance elements of this doco are not totally as they seem.

As a look at the importance and meaning behind music and friendships based around it, Keep On Keepin' On is a must watch documentary that will be loved by many. It's great to see the strength of the human spirit and endurance on show in such a manner and the talent that these two subjects possess musically is something worth beholding.

3 and a half late night musical jams out of 5

"Keep on Keepin On" is a documentary that beautifully depicts the relationship between iconic trumpet player Clark Terry, and his protégé, aspiring 26 year old pianist Justin Kauflin. In an interesting parallel, Kauflin went blind at a young age, and aging Terry ("CT") is in the process of losing his sight from diabetes. What comes through in the movie is the kinship between the two men, as well as with other members of the jazz community, as they pass along wisdom through the generations. It turns out that the first "student" that Clark Terry ever had in his long career was a young wet behind the ears trumpet player named Quincy Jones. Kauflin and Terry develop a father-son type of bond, as we watch Terry struggle with health problems, and Kauflin attempt to establish himself as a successful jazz pianist.

The one problem I had with the documentary, was that we learn much more about Justin the person than we do about Justin the musician. While obviously he is a highly gifted musician, there was so little footage of Kauflin performing on stage (or with a group),I left the film without any real sense of his strengths as a jazz musician. For example, is a composer? Is he a future bandleader who makes everyone around him better? Is his forte that of reworking the classics? I frankly have no idea. As an example, there may have been many trumpeters who could play faster, or cleaner than a young Miles Davis. But none of them could have produced "Kind of Blue" or "Sketches of Spain". The documentary told me that Justin Kauflin is a great person, but who is he as a musician?

First, let me say that I don't even particularly like jazz.

And I am a rather grumpy individual who is really not a people person. BUT...

This documentary made me feel like there is hope for humanity. It left me with a warm and rosy glow. It's not really a "music doc," it's about mentoring and relationships and having a passion for something.

The director is actually a jazz musician, not a film guy. As a former student and mentee of Clark Terry, he felt that this remarkable man's story needed to have a wider audience and set about making the film. But you would never know it was a "first," the direction and editing is so very accomplished.

The people at the center of the film, Clark Terry, aging trumpet virtuoso, his brave and compassionate wife, and the young, blind pianist whose fledgling career the film follows, are so wonderfully compelling. So, too, is the way it portrays the way art (I don't think it matters if its music or visual art or literature) transforms people, the way it can transcend the difficulties of life, how it can bind you to others, how important it is that it be nurtured. It does so without being preachy, without being melodramatic, with humor and love and inspiration.

all right, I'm gushing, aren't I? That's what a film like this can do, even to a cranky old misanthrope!