VICTOR GOINES

Tonight, New Orleans-bred and presently St. Louis x Chicago x NYC-based saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and educator Victor Goines is the guest bandleader of Snug’s “E-Day” Series, when musicians close to our late great Ellis Marsalis present their tribute concerts to his musical legacy on the night of the week that was Ellis’ Snug residency for over 30 years.

Notably, Victor performed in the Ellis Marsalis Quartet for a number of years beginning in the 1980s. Ellis later hired Victor as a faculty member when he created the University of New Orleans Jazz Studies Department in 1989.  Victor Goines is widely recognized as one of the most engaging and versatile performers and composers in music today. Drawing from his New Orleans roots, his extraordinary career includes performances throughout the world earning acclaim from audiences, critics and colleagues. Goines has been a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in NYC and the Wynton Marsalis Septet since 1993.

He has recorded and/or performed with many notable jazz and popular artists including Ahmad Jamal, Ruth Brown, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Dizzy Gillespie, Lenny Kravitz, Ellis Marsalis Jr, Branford Marsalis, Dianne Reeves, Willie Nelson, Marcus Roberts, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, more.

His discography boasts over 20 albums as a bandleader, and recordings on over 70 other releases, including Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning recording, “Blood on the Fields” and Ted Nash’s Grammy Award-winning “Presidential Suite.”  A gifted composer, Goines has more than 100 original works to his credit, including his 1992 debut album “Genesis” on the late Harold Battiste Jr’s seminal AFO Records. In 2000, he was commissioned by Juilliard’s Dance Division to compose or their 50th Anniversary.

Victor is currently the Executive Artistic Director at Jazz St. Louis.