A Marquise
Winter Blues
State House Square Food Court
Hartford
Jan. 13, 2026
One of the powers of music is its ability to move you across time and space to places that are long gone, except for in our memories.
That power was on full display during the first performance of the Winter Blues concert series, where singer A Marquise of New Britain sang hits primarily from the '90s and 2000s.
When people talk about being transported to a different time by music, they usually mean moving backwards to some point in their youth. I had the opposite experience. I felt myself being moved forward in time.
The Boyz II Men classic End of the Road came out in 1992, when I was 6years old. The first time I heard it, it instantly became my favorite song. I looked forward to car rides for the next few months in the hopes that I would hear it again. Of course, at that age I had no idea what the lyrics of the song meant; I just knew that I liked how it sounded.
As I listened to Marquise’s performance, I felt my 6-year-old self being transported to the present day, where my youthful love of the song combined with the experience of several relationships of varying degrees of success. The end of the road is a real place, where love still exists but isn’t enough to pave the way forward. What does one do when love hasn’t faded, but the path forward is blocked? Thirty years still haven’t given me the answer to that one.
I did experience the more traditional time travel that songs afford us when A Marquise sang another of my all-time favorites, Beauty by Dru Hill. I was 12 at the time the song came out, a little more emotionally developed and absolutely certain that I was in love with a girl named Shanice (not the first Shanice to inflict me so, as time would reveal). Marquise matched not only the tonal range of Sisqo in his performance, but the emotional range I felt at the time. I was convinced that the song had been written specifically to tell Shanice how I felt about her, that her beauty was the center of my (school) life.
One of the most important aspects of singing covers is being able to both recreate the sound of the original while adding a unique flair that only the cover artist can provide. A Marquise accomplished this with his wide vocal range that encompassed the performance styles of multiple artists, while adding in his own deep, at times raspy timbre to give the music the grounded, textured feeling of a live performance.
His style was most evident in his original music, which performed towards the end of his set. He began with Try Me, which he said was one of the first songs he ever wrote. I expected a somewhat less mature sound in comparison to the polished hit he’d performed as a result, but Try Me easily hangs with the likes of hits by Babyface and Nokio. It was more upbeat as well, showcasing Marquise’s ability to sing rapidly without losing any of the fullness of his sound.
My first concert of the year was a great trip down memory lane, an opportunity to create new memories as well. I’m sure I’ll be hearing more of A Marquise and the future, and will be able to fondly recall where I was the first time I heard Try Me.
NEXT
The Winter Blues series continues with Michael Sanford Day on Jan. 14.
Jamil goes to check out the Living Room series at Theaterworks.
