Jazz composer and saxophonist Victor Goines first picked up an instrument at the age of 8, and some 30 years later created one of the most important jazz programs in the country at the Julliard School of Music.
Now, the New Orleans native brings his band, The Crescent City Swingers, to the Weehawken waterfront for a free performance to be held by the Hudson Riverfront Performing Arts Center (HRPAC) this Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
“Jazz is a music of communication.” – Victor Goines
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This HRPAC concert celebrates Black History Month (and a possible Saints Super Bowl win) in the atrium of the USB building right next to Houlihan’s in Lincoln Harbor.
“Jazz is a music of communication,” Goines said. “It’s about understanding your role in the music, and the more proficient the understanding the more amazing the music becomes.”
The classically trained clarinet player turned jazz saxophonist said that traditional New Orleans jazz features a trumpet, clarinet and trombone and is accompanied by a banjo, bass guitar, and a bass and snare drum.
Medicinal music
Although Goines played since childhood, a love of music was not the only reason he picked up an instrument.
“I started playing the clarinet because my older brother was getting an instrument, so naturally I wanted one too,” said Goines, who has been the director of jazz studies at Northwestern University since 2008. “But, my mother’s reason for getting me involved with music was quite different.”
Goines had asthma since childhood, and his mother believed playing a woodwind instrument, one that demanded precise breathing techniques, would help the young boy’s breathing.
“The clarinet taught me to be disciplined about my respiratory condition, which has worked out very well for me,” the musician said. “Not only was music a great career move, but a medicinal help, as well.”
A member of Jazz at Lincoln Center for the past 17 years, Goines said that beginning his musical career with the clarinet helped him really develop as a musician.
“The clarinet gave me a proficiency in music that is necessary to understand jazz,” he said. “Not that I have completely mastered clarinet by any means, but you have to have a certain amount of technical ability to learn in any style of music.”
Although an asthmatic boy seems an unlikely candidate to conquer the clarinet, Goines thinks the opposite. “Sometimes the things we need the most are the things that seem the furthest away.”
A brand new start
In 2000, Goines was asked to establish a jazz program at the Julliard School of Music, where he stayed until 2008. “It was a great opportunity for me to establish a program that had uniquely my seal on it. I didn’t have to modify an existing model. It was my ideal program.” The highly selective program, which is still in place today, accepted only 18 students in 2001.
“Performance and education go hand in hand,” Goines said. “The thing that pulls me to education is that I’ve had so many great teachers along the way.”
To date Goines has been teaching for 25 years, originally teaching high school math full time.
Sharing his voice
Although Goines can’t remember coming to Weehawken before, he was a Montclair resident for many years and said he is looking forward to coming back to northern New Jersey.
“I may have been in Weehawken before, but I’m certain I haven’t played the venue before so I’m looking forward to coming.”
The musician said that one of the most fulfilling parts of being a musician is getting to share his work with new people at each new venue.
“The more people I touch,” Goines said, “the more people who hear my voice makes just makes me that much better of a person.”
Sean Allocca can be reached at editorial@hudsonreporter.com