Pianist Justin Kauflin and Dave Grusin have composed the original score for the upcoming documentary Keep On Keepin’ On. The film is helmed by Australian director Alan Hicks who spent four years following the mentorship between jazz-legend Clark Terry and Kauflin, a blind piano prodigy, during a pivotal moment in each of their lives. Academy Award nominee Quincy Jones (The Color Purple) is producing the project with Paula DuPre’ Pesmen (The Cove, Chasing Ice). Keep On Keepin’ On is set to premiere next month at the Tribeca Film Festival. After the premiere screening, there will be a special post-film performance by pianist Justin Kauflin, four-time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer Dianne Reeves and Roy Hargrove on trumpet with Quincy Jones in attendance.
Grusin who is best known for his music for such films as The Graduate, The Goonies, The Firm, The Milagro Beanfield War, The Fabulous Baker Boys and Tootsie also has the coming-of-age drama Skating in New York coming up. The film directed by Charles Minsky follows five teenage boys who leave their small, Canadian town behind and risk skating across Lake Ontario to New York on the coldest day of the year. A release later this year is expected.
