The boogie down continues at the new concert venue.
The $15.4 million, 14,000-square-foot Bronx Music Hall will have a grand opening weekend starting this Friday. The Morrisania venue includes a 250-person performance theater, lobby, exhibition hall, recording studio, and post-production room. Two adjacent plazas with amphitheater-style seating allow for outdoor performances. Youth and adults can also participate in music and dance classes.
In a borough that was once dense with performance spaces, Bronx Music Hall joins Lehman College Performing Arts Center as one of a handful of concert halls. This completes Bronx Commons, a $165 million development that includes 305 units of subsidized housing and 26,500 square feet. retail space, a 150-seat 3K and preschool school, and a community support and training center. Construction began in 2017.
The facility is owned and operated by the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco), a community development organization.
Son Blereng, a group named after an Afro-Colombian dance, performs in front of Bronx high school students in a 250-seat theater at the new Bronx Music Hall. October 16, 2024. Credit: Jonathan Custodio/THE CITYThe grand opening weekend will feature several performances, including Afro-Haitian roots music band Congo, Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band, and Grupo Mabruanya. Sanabria and Elena Martinez, co-artistic directors of WHEDco’s Bronx Music Heritage Center, will oversee programming at the new venue.
The idea for Bronx Music Hall began more than a decade ago at a WHEDco staff meeting, when founder Nancy Bieberman invited Fordham University professor and Bronx historian Mark Nason.
“That staff meeting was the beginning of so many conversations that we had with Mark and others,” Bieberman told THE CITY. “What is it? Where is it? Where was it? Why isn’t it here anymore? What happened? … That process led us to do some really basic field research, and we were able to find out what was missing in the Bronx.” We created a document called Lost Music Venues. What we discovered was that there were at least 20,000 seats in the South Bronx that were missing live music.
The South Bronx was a music capital until the 1970s, when disinvestment and abandonment led to profiteers burning down Bronx apartments and businesses to pay off insurance claims.
Borough historian Angel Hernandez said the history of music venues in the Bronx once included the legendary “Subway Circuit,” where performers honed their musical talents before taking shows on the streets. That circuit included the now landmark Bronx Opera House Hotel, whose second-floor ballroom was home to a succession of nightclubs, including the Caravana Club, the Bronx Casino, and El Cerromar.
“When I was growing up, there were a lot of clubs. Not just clubs, but catering halls, dance halls, and of course church dances. You could make a living as a musician just by playing in the Bronx, especially the South Bronx. “You can. At one time, the Bronx had as many nightclubs, catering halls and dance halls as there were in Manhattan, if not more,” said the 67-year-old Grammy nominee, who grew up 10 blocks from the new music space. said Sanabria, a percussionist and composer.
“You’re talking about places like the Concourse Plaza Hotel, right across from Yankee Stadium, where they had social halls and big salsa dances going on there. There were places like the 845 Jazz Club, which was a great jazz club. Everyone was playing there.”
But then a wave of arson changed everything, Sanabria said.
“It was really bad. I was lucky because I lived in the projects. You can’t burn down a project, but I lived on the 12th floor and me and my sister often looked out the kitchen window. , I was watching and counting the number of fires,” he added. “What kind of entertainment is that for a child? And you hear strange noises — you hear the constant sound of a fire engine running down the street.”
Its troubled history leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of Bronxites like Sanabria.
“The stigma of the fires is still there, and people still have a negative view of the Bronx, especially the South Bronx. Jokes are always being made,” he said, adding that the borough’s cultural He said he wants people to understand that talent and talent are born and exist.
“Now, along with Bronx Music Hall, we hope to be a key part of erasing and eradicating our negative history and image.”
Quoting a Bronx proverb, he added, “The Bronx is successful and everyone accepts it.”
