The Record Interview

Knitting Factory Turns 20
Sunday, February 25, 2007

By MIKE KERWICK
STAFF WRITER



Mess or museum, Michael Dorf's fourth-floor office is inside the same building that houses a branch of the New York Public Library. Suite 4E is home to either a collection of treasures or a bunch of nonsense, leaving an inquisitor to wonder how long Dorf has been stashing memorabilia at this Murray Street location.

"This little dump?" Dorf asks, glancing around at the walls that hold his career together. "Two years."

Dorf is sick this afternoon. He is wearing a black scarf around the office, nursing a hot beverage in a ceramic mug. Between sniffles, the 44-year-old man reaches behind the arm of a red loveseat and pulls out a black-and-white poster advertising a 1991 European tour for the Knitting Factory.

The Knitting Factory. Dorf realizes how silly the name sounds.

"It's an oxymoron," Dorf says. "There's no such thing as a knitting factory. It's a handmade thing you can't manufacture that easily.

"That's why I liked it."

Twenty years after he opened a cafe and performance space at 47 E. Houston St., Dorf is busy planning an anniversary show. It is a tribute to the "Old Knit," the scene that developed during those quixotic early days when Dorf was trying to fund his budding record label.

"It was really one of the most special, site-specific vortexes of energy to ever really occur in the midst of the chaos," said jazz musician Gary Lucas. "There was no real locus or focus of a scene until that club appeared."

Lucas, James "Blood" Ulmer and John Zorn were fixtures there. Mick Jagger and Lou Reed made their way inside the front door. Yo La Tengo, They Might Be Giants, Sonic Youth and Violent Femmes all took to the stage.

And unlike CBGB, the Bottom Line and other live music venues that have folded their cards, the Knitting Factory remains open.

"The Knitting Factory has always been able to reinvent itself to think young and to keep the focus on discovering the best new and emerging talent," said Jared Hoffman, president of Knitting Factory Entertainment. "So if you don't let yourself get too set in your ways ... it's quite possible to stay relevant and exciting in the long run."

Dorf planted seeds for the club in the early '80s, when he was living in Wisconsin.

"I took some guitar lessons and sucked," Dorf said. "And my friends were so naturally gifted that the natural thing for me to participate in the performance was to get behind the board, get behind the lights, get behind the management, get them more work.

"At this point we're 13 years old, so it was more about getting girls."

He began managing a group named Swamp Thing but struggled to find spots where he could book his band. His solution? Start his own place where Swamp Thing could play every night.

"He was absolutely not a slick club owner at all," Lucas said. "When I met him the first day, he was taking tickets at the door and he was serving drinks. I think fruit juice and tea."

To draw people to his Houston Street location, Dorf put up fliers trumpeting future appearances of long-dead musicians Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker.

"I just remember seeing all these posters all over the neighborhood," said Roy Nathanson, who played the Knitting Factory with the Jazz Passengers. "Charlie Parker – all this bogus and hilarious stuff. [I remember thinking] 'That's cool. That's so outrageous.' "

In an essay he wrote in 1992, Dorf said people were calling the place, wondering what time Armstrong was taking the stage. He politely told callers they would be appearing as part of a jazz photo exhibit.

Dorf ran tours through Europe. He switched locations, moving to 74 Leonard St. He put out albums on the Knitting Factory label.

Hoping to expand his business, Dorf took on investors, a move that would hasten his departure from the scene he cultivated. According to Hoffman, Dorf is still on the board of directors but is not involved with the day-to-day operations of the club, one of the reasons why Dorf's show is being held at Town Hall.

"It's an awkward relationship that I have with the current management," Dorf said. "They didn't want to do something like this, and I did, so I'm doing it."

Hoffman said the club has been running small anniversary shows all year and will hold a 20th anniversary show of its own sometime this autumn.

As for Dorf, he's busy planning. He has a Bruce Springsteen tribute show scheduled for April 5 at Carnegie Hall and a pair of Jewish music festivals on the horizon.

But on Thursday, for one night, he is offering a retrospective on the tiny cafe on Houston Street where he first carved his name in the city's music history.

"The Knitting Factory might have been a toilet," Lucas said. "But at least it was our toilet."

E-mail: kerwick@northjersey.com

* * *

WHAT: Michael Dorf's 20th-anniversary celebration of the "Old Knit."

WHO: John Zorn, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Medeski Martin & Wood, Mike Doughty, Joe Lovano, Marc Ribot, Lee Ranaldo, Don Byron, plus surprise guests and friends.

WHERE: Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd St., Manhattan; 212-997-1003.

WHEN: Thursday, 8 p.m.

HOW MUCH: $25, $38, $52.

* * *

The Knitting Factory

Opened: February 1987.

Original location: 47 E. Houston St., Manhattan.

Current location: 74 Leonard St., Manhattan.

Famous acts: Violent Femmes, Yo La Tengo, They Might Be Giants, Sonic Youth, John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed.

The scene: Jazz was big during the early days of the Knitting Factory. So were avant-garde acts that could not find other places in Manhattan to showcase their talents. Eventually it became a melting pot of different types of music, although today its stage tends to feature up-and-coming bands.

Quote: "I think because I was very honest, very fair, the word spread. People started saying, 'Hey, there's this absolute crazy schmuck who's paying out a fair amount of money. He's not taking out $75 for the house sound guy and another $100 for the something expense. He's honest.' And that honesty, I think, helped a lot because the word got out." -- Michael Dorf, founder of the Knitting Factory