The first outward sign of the trouble at Jazz St. Louis appeared on Instagram on April 19.

Cbabi Bayoc, a St. Louis-based artist, posted a photo of himself with his fist raised. In his other hand, he held a painting depicting a Black youth holding a trumpet in one hand, with the other raised in a similar gesture to Bayoc.

In the post, Bayoc wrote about the painting, which is based on Keyon Harrold, Jazz St. Louis’ creative advisor and a prominent jazz performer. Bayoc had painted it live as Harrold performed at Jazz St. Louis in October 2021, and when Bayoc was asked to create a T-shirt for Cocktails for a Cause, a Young Friends fundraiser for Jazz St. Louis scheduled to take place on April 26, it made sense to use the painting.

But within days, Amber HowlettBayoc, Bayoc’s manager and wife, was informed by a Young Friends board member that Jazz St. Louis’ President and CEO Victor Goines had rejected the design.

On Instagram, Bayoc wrote that he and his wife had been told that three white board members expressed unease with the image. Bayoc wrote that he’d been told that Goines had said something like, “I will not support the image as empowerment and solidarity because all lives matter and dollars that support Jazz St. Louis can’t be offended on my watch.”

Bayoc also wrote that a member of the Young Friends board said that Goines later denied offering that rationale, instead saying that the proper protocols hadn’t been followed in selecting the design.

Whatever the reason, Bayoc’s painting was out, and his post was up. Within hours, it garnered thousands of likes and comments from supporters.

Meanwhile, Jazz St. Louis roiled internally. The Bayoc incident and its fallout is only the latest in a string of incidents that has employees and supporters unhappy with Goines as a leader. There have been questions about his hiring, a touring schedule that kept him out of the office, his domineering attitude in the office, his attitudes toward women and non-binary individuals, and his temperament.

Goines did not return a call seeking comment and indicated on April 27 that he had no comment on a detailed list of allegations provided by the RFT.

Goines, a longtime member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet, began his tenure at Jazz St. Louis last September. Earlier that year, he’d retired from a job directing jazz studies at Northwestern University. Previously, he’d been the artistic director of Juilliard’s jazz studies program.

He replaced longtime Jazz St. Louis President and CEO Gene Dobbs Bradford, who had left in the spring of 2022 after more than 23 years at the nonprofit to head up the Savannah Music Festival in Georgia. During Bradford’s ten- ure, he grew the organization’s annual budget from $300,000 to $3 million and introduced a host of educational programs. He also led the campaign to renovate the nonprofit’s building, which reopened as the Harold and Dorothy Steward Center for Jazz in 2014.

Bradford was only the organization’s second leader. Barbara Rose and Peter Bunce founded what was then called Jazz at the Bistro in August 1995 in order to present musicians in an intimate setting. It later became the nonprofit organization Jazz St. Louis, which has a mission “to lead our community in advancing the uniquely American art of jazz through performance, education, and community engagement.”

When Goines was announced as Bradford’s replacement last year, right away, some wondered about his appointment.

“There were kind of some whisperings from the beginning that the process was set up, and that there were some exceptions made for him to join as a CEO,” says Sherry Nelson Thomas, who was, until recently, a Jazz St. Louis Young Friends board member.

An advisory board, the Young Friends of Jazz St. Louis is made up of individuals under 45 who serve as ambassadors to the community, support the organization’s development efforts to fund education programs and select six shows for a package subscription. It’s different from the Jazz St. Louis board of directors, which is the governing body of the nonprofit. That board has 28 members, including two emeritus members, listed on its website currently. More than 60 percent appear to be white while the Young Friends board and leadership, Nelson Thomas says, until recently was mostly people of color.

Last September, Goines told the RFT that he had been clued onto the CEO position by a childhood friend, jazz great Marsalis, and that he intended to build up Jazz St. Louis. Yet some people questioned why someone with such an impressive pedigree would even be interested in St. Louis.

“For me it was a red flag of, ‘Why is he 62 years old and having a really nice job at Northwestern and suddenly leaving that to come here? It didn’t really compute in my mind,” says a Jazz St. Louis employee who spoke with the RFT on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Both the employee and Nelson Thomas say that Goines was largely absent when he started the position because he was traveling as a musician. Nelson Thomas says she gave him the benefit of the doubt at first.

As time went on, the employee says, Goines was “very frustrating and difficult” to work for and constantly sought to be in control of everything.

“He has demonstrated poor leadership to the point where in January, February of this year, people were concerned that he would ultimately be a liability for the organization because of things that he would say,” the employee says.

One of those instances came at a monthly group birthday celebration that Jazz St. Louis regularly holds, when staffers gather for cake and to chat. The employee says Goines brought up sexual harassment training that he’d gone through at Juilliard and at Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

The man who ran the training

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