Marquise Knox Live in Vienne, France

Marquise Knox is a young flagbearer for the old blues tradition. Here, at Jazz a Vienne in France, he delivers a repertoire that pits his own compositions against old blues standards like “Walking The Dog” and “Commit A Crime.” They stand up remarkably well and with deftness of delivery and a golden tone, Knox wins the crowd over within seconds. 

A native of Saint-Louis, Missouri, Knox was raised on Muddy Waters and bottle-fed to B.B. King. There are few modern blues artists as authentic or as capable of singing about their own experiences (a year before this concert he was lucky to survive after being stabbed in the neck while returning home from a gig). But it’s all smiles here as he weaves masterful and lulling narratives into a set that includes crowd participation and every facet of the blues, raw and beautiful in equal measure.