IT JUST KEEPS ON KEEPIN’ ON
This Friday, January 22, Clark Terry protégé and jazz pianist Justin Kauflin will be appearing at the Wallis in Beverly Hills for one night only. Following an 8pm screening of Keep On Keepin’ On, Alan Hicks’ ode to the friendship between the prodigious lifetime Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Clark Terry and Kauflin (see Stage and Cinema‘s review), there will be a Q&A with legendary music producer Quincy Jones. The extraordinary Kauflin will then perform with transcendent skill on piano.
Kauflin has a close relationship with Jones, who was Terry’s first student in the 1940s and maintained a lifelong friendship with the trumpeter (Jones also serves as executive producer for Keep On Keepin’ On). Kauflin was signed by the legendary producer and music icon, and in 2013 and 2014, was part of Quincy Jones’s World Tours.
Born in Silver Spring, Maryland, Mr. Kauflin began music at age 4 with violin, adding piano a few years later. By age 6, he was performing professionally. Despite losing his sight at the age of 11, Kauflin began performing jazz a few short years later at the age of 15, most notably with the Jae Sinnett Trio. The piano extraordinaire has gone on to garner top honors and recognition at jazz festivals across the U.S., including receiving the VSA International Young Soloist Award, being voted “Jazz Artist of the Year” in VEER Magazine, and being selected as a semifinalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. With this gig, Kauflin launches the Next Generation @ The Wallis series focusing the spotlight on rising artists across the performing arts spectrum.
Justin Kauflin photo by Gustavo Morita
Quincy Jones photo by Greg Gorman
Justin Kauflin, piano
Bram Goldsmith Theater
Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd in Beverly Hills
Friday, January 22, 2016 at 8
for tickets, call 310-746-4000 or visit The Wallis
