Madonna Rising Pt. 2 \u2013 The Music Building<\/a>. Like a time capsule, the unrenovated 1927 edifice, with its sticker-plastered lobby payphone and graffiti-splattered stairways, looks virtually the same as it did in the CBGB era.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSACHA LECCA<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile rock and punk bands dominated its early days, the Music Building today hosts all genres and a dozen hip-hop production studios, along with Broadway players and music educators. Many flavors of rock, pop, R&B, metal, hardcore, jam-band, country, funk, reggae, electronica, rap, jazz, big-band, theatrical, Brazilian, and Latin music happily coexist and cross-pollinate here.<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the late 1970s, building founder Jack Lerner \u2014 a charismatic real estate broker with a cowboy hat who used to hold court in the lobby \u2014 had an idea, says his son, Roget Lerner, whose company owns the building: \u201cNo one had ever said, \u2018I\u2019m going to rent 69 studios direct to musicians who want to make a lot of noise.\u2019\u201d In just a few months, all of the rooms were rented. In the August 1981 issue of Interview, Andy Warhol told Mick Jagger that he visited the newly repurposed building: \u201cYou go absolutely crazy listening to 60 different groups. It was the most exciting thing I ever did in my life.\u201d (In 1983, Jack Lerner opened a second building with 120 studios in Jamaica, Queens, which hosted Anthrax, Metallica, LL Cool J, and Run-DMC; that building closed in 1996 due to fire.)<\/p>\n
\n\tKeyboardist Ricky Tepperberg, who has rehearsed in the building for 30 years with the High Times Cannabis Cup Band and backed artists from Rita Marley to Robin Thicke, first made his way to a session there in 1985. \u201cAs run-down as it seemed, I got the overwhelming sensation that I was in a very happening place,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was rock & roll, it was punk, it was real.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tMarcus Garrick Miller plays his bass saxophone<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSacha Lecca<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe Music Building has been a crucial place for practicing, rehearsing, and networking,\u201d says saxophonist and Jon Batiste band member Marcus Garrick Miller, who recently played with Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. \u201cIt\u2019s special to work out of a space deeply connected to New York\u2019s legacy of musicians and recording artists who care about the craft of live music.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n
\n\tEspecially for drummers \u2014 including Tony \u201cThunder\u201d Smith, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Alex Cohen, Madonna collaborator Stephen Bray, and even Madonna herself \u2014 the building has offered the rare opportunity to play 24\/7 in Manhattan. \u201cThe building is a refuge,\u201d says R&B drummer Eric Brown, who has toured with Lakecia Benjamin, Rachelle Ferrell, the late Grammy-winning saxophonist Casey Benjamin, and British neo-soul singer Omar. \u201cPlaying music in this creative environment is inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n
\n\tMany rooms are shared by multiple bands, and a barrage of musical styles can be heard at all hours. A 1992 New York Times story entitled \u201cBabel-on-Hudson: House of 100 Bands<\/a>\u201d duly noted that \u201criding the elevator is like twirling the radio dial\u201d \u2014 and that an angry listener once \u201ctook out one of the windows\u201d with a shotgun.<\/p>\n\n\tIn recent years, New York\u2019s music industry has been challenged as many venues and studios closed. But the Music Building, which will turn 50 in 2029, remains fully occupied. \u201cIt\u2019s a one-of-a-kind institution and an important part of the city,\u201d says Lerner, who also operates Chicago\u2019s Music Building. \u201cThe goal is to keep it going sustainably, exactly as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"S ince 1979, New York\u2019s Music Building has hosted thousands of bands, musicians, and artists, both famous and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13118,132549,9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":["post-355723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-madonna","tag-music-building","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}