After hearing the news that celebrated jazz trumpeter and educator Clark Terry has entered hospice care, I came across this performance by his protégé Justin Kauflin. Despite losing his eyesight at the young age of eleven, Kauflin has gone on to become an award-winning jazz pianist and has even been called “one of the best piano players on earth.”
In 2004 (after graduating in the top 1 percent of his high school class alongside his sighted peers), Kauflin received a Presidential scholarship to attend William Paterson University in New Jersey. There, he was taken under the wings of the legendary trumpeter and performed in the Clark Terry Ensemble. Their relationship was chronicled in the documentary, Keep On Keepin' On, which won the Heineken Audience and Best New Director Awards at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014.
Check out Kauflin's September 2014 appearance from The Queen Latifah Show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKaWlkJkWJg