Born on 6 August 1961 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Goines took up the clarinet at eight and later expanded his woodwind skills to include multiple saxophones during high school. He enrolled at Loyola University in 1980 to study clarinet and saxophones, completing his degree in 1984. Jazz captured his attention just before graduation, leading him to seek lessons from Ellis Marsalis, who promptly welcomed him into his working quartet. Goines continued his training in 1987 at Virginia Commonwealth University, using any available time to perform in New York alongside Lionel Hampton, Bobby Watson, Jack McDuff and Ruth Brown while also serving in the pit orchestra for the Broadway production Black And Blue. Returning to New Orleans in 1991, he drew notice through prize-winning performances that led directly to his debut solo album. As a sideman he joined Wynton Marsalis on the road in 1993 and 1994, and he collaborated with Marcus Roberts, Terence Blanchard, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra on clarinet plus alto, tenor and baritone saxophones.
His session work encompasses dates with Ellis and Wynton Marsalis—the latter’s Blood On The Fields among them—plus recordings by Roberts, the LCJO, Donald Harrison and Damon Short, and vocalists Brown, Germaine Bazzle and Irma Thomas. Additional credits include film and television scores together with music videos featuring Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, Dianne Reeves, Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea, and Wynton Marsalis. From the outset of his professional life Goines pursued teaching, holding faculty posts at Xavier, Loyola and New Orleans universities and leading workshops and clinics throughout New Orleans as well as at Cornell University and numerous other locations. In late 2000 he became Director of Juilliard Jazz Studies, the newly formed partnership between the Juilliard School and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
