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After closing in 2024, St. Louis club BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups rehearses for a revival 15%
By Jeremy D. Goodwin0%
5/21/2026, 10:00:00 AM
Topics: Music, Local Culture
Keywords: Live Music, Blues, Local Music, Music Venue, Music, Downtown Stl, Broadway Oyster Bar, Bbs Jazz Blues And Soups, Jazz
BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Anecdotal, Indoctrination, and Halo Effect, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 22.2% saturation with 125 hits. Analysis detected 804 faulty-reasoning hits from 564 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 31.3% and a BS Rank of 15% (17,523 of 20,472 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 85.60% of the article peer group.
St.
Louis bluesman Marquise Knox stood center stage at BB’s Jazz, Blues and Soups, tightly gripping a microphone as he belted out the words to a soul classic that vocalist James Carr made famous in 1966.
“Won’t you show a little mercy?
Can’t you understand?
You’re pouring water on a drowning man,” Knox sang, as members of an appreciative crowd — filling much of the space in the 300-capacity club on Wednesday afternoon — hooted their approval.
It’s the sort of sight that was once common at this venue, but hasn’t recurred since the club closed its doors in 2024, seemingly for good.
Steve Sullivan and Mark Goldenberg, who bought BB’s neighbor Broadway Oyster Bar in 2019, now have the blues club under contract to buy.
“Let me make a few promises to you.
We are going to be good stewards of this place,” Sullivan said from the stage during the preview event.
“Music is the soul of St.
Louis, every bit as much as the Arch, as much as the St.
Louis Cardinals.
Maybe even as much as gooey butter cake.
So we’re not going to lose this heritage.”
The target reopening date for the venue is Sept.
1, Sullivan said, and it will open four days a week.
A gospel brunch is planned for Sundays.
The menu will be inspired by cuisine of the South.
Beyond finalizing the sale, another key task remains for the prospective new owners: securing a liquor license.
Knox will book the performers at the newly revived BB’s.
He also plans to run music education programs from the space.
“Blues artists deserve a blues club.
And we view BBs not only as a club.
It's an institution for St.
Louis blues,” Knox said, “and our goal going forward is to make sure that we are teaching the young kids about the blues.
We want to make sure that our young Black babies also know that this is their heritage.
This is their culture, and they should be proud of it.
And they can always come down here to experience it and learn it.”
There’s some historical symmetry in Sullivan and Goldenberg’s move to take over the club.
BB’s co-founder Bob Burkhardt opened Broadway Oyster Bar in 1978.
Burkhard and Mark O’Shaughnessy had opened BB’s two years earlier, but the club went through two cycles of opening, closing and sitting dormant before the enterprise caught a third wind in 1996.
It reopened that year after a 15-year gap and became a supporting pillar of the local blues community.
After starting out as a bartender there, John May worked his way up to managing partner and part owner of BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups before retiring at the end of 2023.
Standing on the front sidewalk on Wednesday, after his first taste of live music there in years, May said the landmark is in good hands.
“The goal was that if we were going to sell it, hopefully it would be to somebody who would respect the legacy.
Steve and the Oyster Bar are invested in this area, and they respect the city and the music, and they respect the legacy of BB’s and wanted to carry it on.
That was perfect, because if it isn't going to be us, let it be them.”
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100%flagged-word coverageJohn May
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