Bronx Music Hall is a performing arts center in Melrose, The Bronx. It’s the best representation I know, of all the communities that make The Bronx Beautiful ~ truly the Lincoln Center of The Bronx, verda’! They present great Bronx artists and nurture the next generation with top teaching artists, and even a professional recording studio.
Part of the Hall’s magic comes from the co-Artistic directors: Elena Martínez is THE folklorist of The Bronx, and son of the Bronx Bobby Sanabria is a multiple Grammy-nominated jazz drummer who was the first Puerto Rican at Berklee College of Music. No matter your heritage, you will feel at home here.
Los Pleneros de la 21 | Sat, June 6 | ovationtix.com
Bochinchando: Uptown Solo Festival | Jun 17 | ovationtix.com
Camila Cortina Trio | Thu, June 18 | ovationtix.com
Bobby Sanabria Dance Party | Sat, June 20 | ovationtix.com
Latin Artists at The Bronx Music Hall
Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band Album Release Dance Party
Arsenio and Beyond: Live at the Bronx Music Hall
Album release dance party
Sat, June 20, 2026 | 7pm
$30
Jazz critics are saying this album by a real son of the Bronx is a candidate for Latin Jazz Album of the Year. If you want to have some good dances, you know where to go ~ The Bronx Music Hall.
Camila Cortina Trio
Cuban-born Latin jazz pianist and educator in Afro-Cuban traditions
Thu, June 18, 2026 | 8pm
$15
The piano is actually a percussion instrument.
Bochinchando: Uptown Solo Festival
Peaches Rodriguez hosts Joanna Briley and Bill Santiago
Being US Mexican, African American, or Puerto Rican Dominican
Standup comedy summer series
Wed, Jun 17, 2026 | 7pm, doors 6:30
$12
As I understand it, bochinchando in the Caribbean means juicy gossip, and in Central and South America, means an uproar. Basically it means you’re going to laugh your butt off. It’s healthier than ozempic.
Los Pleneros de la 21: Por la Plena Tour
Grammy-nominated Puerto Rican plena and bomba group
Sat, June 6, 2026 | 8pm
$25
Kíko ~ “Tintorera del mar…que se ha comido a un americano.” That actually happened to me in Santurce. Yo soy comida, porque soy americano, pero Boricua de corazón. Home is where the heart is, and someday I will go home. “Me voy, pero un dia volver.” I just realized the poem Boricua en la Luna was probably the inspiration for my mentor Adál Maldonado’s photo “Coconauts in Space” (1988). Diaspora is a tough lover, but she’ll never leave you.
The Lyricism of Bachata: A Symposium
Dr. Wilfredo Burgos-Matos, poet Scarlet Gomez, Joselito Sentimiento & Los Sabrosos de la Bachata, Dominican guitarist Yasser Tejeda (Buena Vista Social Club Broadway) discuss the poetry of la bachata.
Sat, May 23, 3-9pm
– Poetry discussion: 3-6pm, $10
– Dance lesson and concert: 6-9pm, $15
– Entire day, $20
I’m sure this will be a lively conversation because Dominicans are lively. I never win an argument with my Afro-Indigenous Dominican Taína wife because she talks louder and faster than I do.
Bachata is la música de amargue. It used to be sugarcane cutter laments about the bitterness of life. I talk with them and their stories will break your heart. Modern bachata is mostly variations of I want you, I love you, I hate you, I miss you.
Most Caribbean lyrics are dipped in double-meaning. Only Dominicans fully understand bachata lyrics because we don’t speak Spanish, we speak Dominican. You want a “chin.” That literally means “a little bit,” but all Dominicans know it means something else entirely, something you probably want a lot of. Dame un chin. Damelo. LOL.
Bachata has Haitian roots which most Dominicans struggle against. It comes from the batey. To my Puerto Rican de corazón self, the batey is bomba’s sacred dance circle, but in the Dominican Republic, it is where Haitian migrant sugarcane workers live.
But Latin music ALWAYS comes from the most disadvantaged neighborhoods, which in the Caribbean tend to be more African descendent. At first the elite say the music is low class and naughty. Then they see how much fun we are having and claim it as their own. The music gets Europeanized and the African root is forgotten.
That’s what has happened to bachata. But interestingly, movement in Sensual Bachata, the bachata dance which developed in Spain, is related to the sensuality and movement of the island where la bachata was born. The African root is still there if you know where to look. ¡Aché!
King Joseph Chatoyer: Garifuna Musical Tribute
Felix Gamboa’s Joseph Chatoyer Garifuna Dance Ensemble
Honoring the last Garifuna Chief on St. Vincent
Sat, Apr 11, 7pm
$20
King Joseph Chatoyer was the Garifuna chief who resisted the British on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. The British could not defeat the Garifuna until he died. The American equivalent is Chief Joseph, the chief of the last free Native American tribe in the United States.
The Word on 163rd
The Word on 163rd is a spoken word and solo music open mic, hosted by Bronx poet Sumbodies Mama; at the Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx; on Thursday, February 19, 2026 at 7pm. $5.
Wanaragua: Garifuna Traditions and Language Preservation
This is a film screening with a discussion by director Eli LaBan, Dan Kaufman, and New York Garifuna community leader Luz Soliz, with a performance by Grupo Maburuaña; at The Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx; on Saturday, February 21, 2026 at 7pm. $20. 🪶 🇻🇨 🇭🇳 🗽
Garifuna are a mix of Indigenous Carib, Arawak, and West African, originally from St. Vincent. Their story is one of tremendous resilience. They have maintained their culture from St. Vincent to exile in Honduras in 1797, to New York City, which has the largest Garifuna population outside of Honduras. Punta, the Honduran national dance, is Garifuna. If you like Afro-Latin drum, song, and dance traditions, you will love Garifuna culture.
UNESCO has declared Garifuna language a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.” This mix of Arawak, Carib, French, Spanish, and West African languages is endangered because young Garifuna are switching to Spanish or English. Our heritage traditions are worth keeping. “Bungiu lereba-hü” (God bless you).
Sunday Salon: Rueda de Oro
The Golden Circle is Juan Ospina’s Afro-Colombian Bullerengue (sort of women’s cumbia) workshop and drum, song, and dance circle. FREE.
Remember that the dance circle is a sacred space. Leave all your troubles behind before you enter. If you go, you won’t want to leave. This is Afro-Latin community.
Quest IV Yurumein
“Quest IV Yurumein” (2025), by John Moreira Arzú, is a documentary about the roots of New York City’s Indigenous Garifuna community which reach back to Central America, and their homeland in Yurumein, the Garifuna name for St. Vincent. It’s at the Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx; on Saturday, February 28, 2026 at 3pm $15.
The Bronx has the largest Garifuna community outside of Honduras. Their story is one of incredible resilience since their 1796 exile. The Garifuna have held their community and culture together for 230 years through it all.
Garifuna are Indigenous Carib. Taíno and Carib used to fight each other for control of the Eastern Caribbean. Now we help each other. The main island of Puerto Rico is the eastern end of traditional Taíno lands. Just seven miles away on the small island Vieques, the people and culture become more Carib. They are so fierce, they stopped the U.S. Navy from bombing the island. Our roots are still very present if you know how to look for them.
Nosotros, la música
Documentary film “Nosotros, la música” (1964), by Rogelio Paris, captures the vibrant life in the streets, nightclubs, and television shows of 1964 Cuba. The old ways live on in Cuba more than in many places, but even so, this is a window into a world that is largely gone forever. The images of the comparsas (marching groups) are striking for the way they show how music and dance were the glue of Cuban community life. Many instances of a corneta China in the film sound North African, even Arab, in a way, I haven’t heard before, although Arab culture is definitely in the Caribbean. The film screens with a discussion with filmmaker Berta Jottar at the Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx; on Friday, January 23, 2026 at 7pm. $7. 🇨🇺
Pablo Mayor
Grammy-nominee Pablo Mayor’s Colombian Jazz Project blends traditional Colombian rhythms with contemporary jazz at the Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx; on Thursday, January 22, 2026 at 8pm. $15.
Pablo Mayor is one of New York City’s leading Colombian American composers. Every region in the Americas has a unique blend of Indigenous, European, and African traditions. Even in that context, Colombia is known for its cultural diversity, and Pablo Mayor is one of the New York artists who knows and can teach you.
Pidyon (Redemption)
This is the reading of a play that shows how the courage of Barbara Rose Johns, a Bronx teenager who led a 1951 student strike in Prince Edward County, Virginia, led to the Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court ruling that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. It’s at the Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx; on Sunday, January 11, 2026 at 3pm. FREE.
The moral is be kind, but be courageous and stand your ground. You are from The Bronx.
Azúcar: Cuban Music on Film
This night screens two Cuban movies about the soul of Cuban music: “Llegó el tresero,” and “La Vida es un sueño;” followed by a discussion with Fania All-Star tres player Nelson Gonzalez; at Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx; on Friday, December 5, 2025 at 7pm (Doors 6:30pm). 🇨🇺
Sunday Salon
This is a holiday market and deaf arts showcase with Deaf, Puerto Rican, and Bengali artisanal crafts for sale; and performances by Deaf poets Gisell Duran and Roxanne Aguilo, and a percussion duet of Carlos Orama & Bobby Sanabria. Reserve a free holiday portrait by renowned photographer Edwin Pagán. It’s all at The Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx; on Sunday, December 7, 2025 at 3pm. FREE.
Eugene Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble “A Not So Silent Night”
This is a holiday jazz program that blends Christian, Jewish, Latin, and classical traditions into jazz in a very New York way; at The Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx; on Thursday, December 18, 2025 at 7pm. The Bronx Music Hall Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble directed by Bobby Sanabria opens at 6pm. $15. 🇺🇸
Dr. Eugene Marlow is an American composer, author, and Senior Professor of Journalism and Writing at Baruch College (CUNY). He is a polymath who is super smart and good at everything he does. He is a great arranger. Like his drummer Bobby Sanabria, Dr. Marlow brings many traditions together in a wonderful way. Both of these artists are the kind of people you dream of having as your mentor. Go and meet them. Ask them to show you polyrhythms and see what happens.
Mott Haven Film Festival
The Mott Haven Film Festival 2025 features film screenings and an awards ceremony at the beautiful Bronx Music Hall, in Melrose, The Bronx; on Saturday, October 4, 2025. There are screenings at 2pm, 5pm, and 8pm with an awards ceremony after the 8pm screenings. From $24.
Bronx Week Events
Puerto Rican Jazz Tribute to Cuban Son
Learn about the life and music of Arsenio Rodríguez, “El Ciego Maravilloso,” the blind Cuban tres player who changed the course of Cuban son (which became Latin jazz and salsa in New York, and timba in Cuba), with a screening of the Rodríguez biography “La vida es un sueno” by Arlety Veunes Toro, followed by a performance of Rodríguez’ music by the Bronx’s own Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band featuring vocalists Jennifer Jade Ledesna, Gerardo Contino “El Abogado de la Salsa,” Oreste Abrantes, plus Benjamin Lapidus on tres. It’s at the Bronx Music Hall in beautiful Melrose, The Bronx; on Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 7pm. $25.
Kíko ~ I’d pay good money to see any of these artists by themselves. Together at home in The Bronx, WEPA, WEPA, WEPA, vamos a gozar! Bring your dance shoes because your butt is going to move all by itself.
After over a decade of effort, the Bronx Music Hall opens with a diverse range of great music.
Bronx Hip Hop, House, & Haitian
Grandmaster Caz and MC Sha-Rock hip hop, Uptown Vinyl Supreme spins Black and Latin house, and Kongo plays Haitian Vodou drums, to open the Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx; on Friday, October 18, 2024; with a panel at 5:30pm, opening reception at 6:30pm, and performances at 8pm. $350
Grandmaster Caz (Curtis Brown) was a member of the iconic Cold Crush Brothers. He’s old school from even before the New York City Blackout of 1977. When Sylvia Robinson put together a crew to make “Rapper’s Delight,” the first hip hop record, singer Big Bank Hank had Caz’s lyrics and rapped them pretty much straight up. Having your rhymes stolen was the reason early rappers wouldn’t record. Anyway, Caz is the real deal. @therealgrandmastercaz 🇺🇸
MC Sha-Rock (Sharon Green) is “The Mother of the Mic,” generally considered the first female rapper. Back in the day, that was something, and she still rocks the mic. @iammcsharock 🇺🇸
Uptown Vinyl Supreme is Sunny Cheeba, Buddy, and Josh Hubi. No digital here, only old school vinyl, real for real. It’s how we do it in The Bronx. #VinylToThePeople @uptownvinylsupreme
- Sunny Cheeba is one of our favorite+favorite DJs. @sunnnaay 🇵🇷
- Buddy @uptowndollyandvenus
- Josh Hubi @joshhubi
Kongo is a Haitian folkloric group in The Bronx. They are Vodou drummers, one of the deepest roots of jazz and American popular music. Deeper than that, you might think you have to go to Mother Afrika, but according to the Smithsonian, the best living example of pre-contact African drumming isn’t in Africa any more, it’s in Haiti. When we start something new, we always start with drumming, singing, and dancing to invite divine blessings. When you hear the call of the drum, you know that everyone is gathering in peace. What a great way to open the Bronx Music Hall.
Puerto Ricans make a big deal about our Indigenous Taíno roots, but the Taíno heartland was the island of Ayiti / Quisqueya / Hispaniola. We also make a big deal about our West African roots, but many Africans brought to Ayiti were from Central Africa. Though Vodou comes from Benin, it’s essence is Central African Kongo. And though various regions in the Americas have different blends of Yoruba, Dahomey, and Kongo, the Kongo culture seems to be everywhere, especially in music.
New Orleans Jazz & Bronx Jazz
Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band and Ricky Gordon & The Individuals of Peace play modern and second line (old school parade) jazz; at the Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx; on Saturday, October 19, 2024; with a reception at 6pm and performances at 8pm. $350 🇵🇷 🇺🇸
Berklee College of Music is famous for developing successful jazz musicians. Bobby Sanabria, a real Son of the Bronx, was the first Puerto Rican in the school.
Kpanlogo & Garifuna
Yawuza Alhassan & the Wuza Wuza Ensemble play Ghanian kpanlogo urban dance drumming, and Grupo Maburuaña does Garifuna dance drumming; at the Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx; on Sunday, October 20, 2024, at 3pm. $25 🇬🇭 🇭🇳
Yawuza Alhassan & the Wuza Wuza Ensemble plays kpanlogo, a Ghanian form of urban dance drumming that mixed rock and roll into Ghanian traditions. The rhythm is the same as son clave used in Cuban music. Early rocker Bo Diddley brought the rhythm into rock and roll. Our traditions keep crossing back and forth across the water. @yawuzaalhassan
Grupo Maburuaña does Garifuna dance drumming. The Garifuna are an Afro-Indigenous community, originally from Saint Vincent, and later from Honduras and Belize. The Bronx has a vibrant Garifuna community.
Featured Artists
- Anthony Blackwell Casa de Tango, African American Argentine tango
- Bobby Sanabria, Puerto Rican jazz
- Dominican Film Festival New York
- Gagá Pa’l Pueblo Afro-Dominican spring festival
- Jarana Beat Mexican American son jarocho and fandango
- Mott Haven Film Festival, Bronx films
- Nélida Tirado Flamenco Arte 718 Puerto Rican traditional flamenco
- New York Opera Alliance
- Pablo Mayor, Colombian folkloric jazz
- Rock the Bronx music festival
- Villalobos Brothers Mexican American pop alternative
About
The Hall opened in October 2024. It’s a project of the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) which develops affordable housing. That’s important because women are the guardians of culture. Lead producers include Elena Martínez, the folklorist of The Bronx; and Bobby Sanabria, Bronx born and raised, multiple Grammy-nominated jazz drummer, composer, and educator. If you want to know the real history of The Bronx, Elena and Bobby are two of the people you want to talk to.
Melrose was once an entertainment hub like Greenwich Village is now. Bronx Music Hall is an important step in bringing entertainment back to Bronx communities. This is Bronx Rising!
And it’s not just a performance space, it’s a space to teach and learn. Once upon a time in The Bronx, the drum never stopped. The opening of the Bronx Music Hall is the return of the drum. This is a great place to learn various forms of drumming and dancing, including Puerto Rican bomba, Colombian cumbia, Dominican gagá, African American tap, Spanish flamenco, Indian classical, and more. Bronx Music Heritage Center programs have moved here. Some of New York’s leading cultural organizations collaborate on programming. Big stars and community leaders teach and perform.
Bronx Music Hall Tickets
Bronx Music Hall
438 East 163rd St
(at Washington)
Melrose, The Bronx
Note: The Bronx Music Hall is a cashless venue.