Morrison Hotel Gallery Showcases Classic Photos

New York’s Morrison Hotel Gallery unveiled the first exhibit of many from Sony BMG’s massive archives on July 18. The exhibit, which was announced by the Soho gallery earlier this summer, was compiled with the intention of providing visitors with a visual history of Columbia’s famed 30th Street Studio.

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New York’s Morrison Hotel Gallery unveiled the first exhibit of many from Sony BMG’s massive archives on July 18. The exhibit, which was announced by the Soho gallery earlier this summer, was compiled with the intention of providing visitors with a visual history of Columbia’s famed 30th Street Studio.

The studio, built in an old Armenian Greek Orthodox Church, was a hotspot for both new and seasoned musicians of the 50s and 60s but has since been torn down. Tony Bennett, who is featured in the exhibit, was thrilled about the prospect of sharing the studio’s history with a new generation. “These are pictures of a great time in music – the 1950s and 1960s. It was horrible that they tore down the 30th Street Studio, with all the history, all the talent that happened there,” he said.

The majority of the photos, which have not been seen by the public, were taken by rock photographer Don Hunstein. Photographs in this exhibit (thirty photos have been chosen from over one million for this first portion) span such legendary artists as Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Duke Ellington, among others.

Visitors will catch glimpses of Dylan recording Highway 61 Revisited, Ellington post-Grammy’s, and a young Aretha Franklin captivating those around her when recording one of her early albums. The gallery’s press release does not provide a date through which the exhibit will run.

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