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
Monday, February 26, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
In today's New York Times
In case you missed this in the paper this morning. A semi accurate piece. Not sure why he thinks Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson are " amusingly off base" given they performed many a time at the Knit, and Lou has come to my Seder more than most other artists.......
The Old Knit
Twenty years ago this month, doors opened at the Knitting Factory, a ramshackle performance space in a former Avon Products office on East Houston Street. It was a project born of bohemian idealism and perhaps a whiff of desperation: the club's founder, Michael Dorf, and some friends had been struggling to support an indie-rock band and record label when Mr. Dorf made his foray into the downtown music scene. Within weeks, the Knitting Factory became a hub of that scene, partly through the programming of musicians like the keyboardist Wayne Horvitz and the saxophonist John Zorn. Then came a steroidal expansion. Over the next decade, Mr. Dorf oversaw the development of a label (Knitting Factory Works), a festival (complete with corporate sponsors) and an ambitious new-media company (KnitMedia, Inc.) He also moved the club into a larger physical complex, at 74 Leonard Street in TriBeCa. With growth came various problems, including significant debt and the erosion of goodwill toward him among musicians. In 2002, Mr. Dorf stepped down as the president of KnitMedia, and now he as little affiliation with the Knitting Factory clubs on Leonard Street and in Los Angeles. So to Celebrate the anniversary of what he fondly calls the 'the Old Knit", Mr. Dorf has enlisted a handful of obliging artists--including Mr. Zorn, the guitarist Marc Ribot, the clarinetist Don Byron and the trio Medeski Martin & Wood--for a concert at Town Hall. Of course the setting is amusingly off base, and some performers, like Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, above, come with only tangential ties to the Knitting Factory's salad days. At least in one sense, thought, the concert is true to the original spirit of an avant-garde community: all ticket proceeds will benefit the Stone, a bare-bones East Village performance space owned by Mr. Zorn. (Thursday at 8pm, Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/arts/music/23jazz.html
The Old Knit
Twenty years ago this month, doors opened at the Knitting Factory, a ramshackle performance space in a former Avon Products office on East Houston Street. It was a project born of bohemian idealism and perhaps a whiff of desperation: the club's founder, Michael Dorf, and some friends had been struggling to support an indie-rock band and record label when Mr. Dorf made his foray into the downtown music scene. Within weeks, the Knitting Factory became a hub of that scene, partly through the programming of musicians like the keyboardist Wayne Horvitz and the saxophonist John Zorn. Then came a steroidal expansion. Over the next decade, Mr. Dorf oversaw the development of a label (Knitting Factory Works), a festival (complete with corporate sponsors) and an ambitious new-media company (KnitMedia, Inc.) He also moved the club into a larger physical complex, at 74 Leonard Street in TriBeCa. With growth came various problems, including significant debt and the erosion of goodwill toward him among musicians. In 2002, Mr. Dorf stepped down as the president of KnitMedia, and now he as little affiliation with the Knitting Factory clubs on Leonard Street and in Los Angeles. So to Celebrate the anniversary of what he fondly calls the 'the Old Knit", Mr. Dorf has enlisted a handful of obliging artists--including Mr. Zorn, the guitarist Marc Ribot, the clarinetist Don Byron and the trio Medeski Martin & Wood--for a concert at Town Hall. Of course the setting is amusingly off base, and some performers, like Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, above, come with only tangential ties to the Knitting Factory's salad days. At least in one sense, thought, the concert is true to the original spirit of an avant-garde community: all ticket proceeds will benefit the Stone, a bare-bones East Village performance space owned by Mr. Zorn. (Thursday at 8pm, Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/arts/music/23jazz.html
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Paste Magazine mention
Lou Reed To Play "Old Knit" 20th Anniversary Bash
With the recent closings of CBGB's and The Bottom Line, perhaps Michael Dorf, former CEO of New York City’s Knitting Factory, finally realizes what a special place he founded back in 1987. On March 1, Dorf will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his beloved “Old Knit” with a benefit concert for The Stone, a non-profit performance space in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
The evening marks the seminal club’s survival with performances by a host of musicians who got their start at the at the venue, including Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, John Zorn and Lee Ranaldo, among others. Tickets for the March 1st concert at New York City’s Town Hall are on sale now via Ticketmaster and range from $25 to $52.
See this online at:
Paste Magazine
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Relix.com Post:
Lou Reed, MMW, and Mike Doughty to Celebrate the Knitting Factory’s 20th Anniversary
Concert promoter Michael Dorf will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the club he brought to fame, the Knitting Factory, with an all-star benefit at New York’s Town Hall on March 1. The multi-band event will raise money for John Zorn’s artist’s womb, The Stone, and features a number of the Knitting Factory’s most famous alumni. Artists scheduled to appear include Zorn, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, MMW, Joe Lovano, Marc Ribot, Lee Ranaldo, Don Byron, and Mike Doughty, the latter of whom once worked the club’s door. The Knitting Factory, which currently has locations in New York and Los Angeles, helped define New York’s downtown music scene and now hosts an eclectic mix of music.
Concert promoter Michael Dorf will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the club he brought to fame, the Knitting Factory, with an all-star benefit at New York’s Town Hall on March 1. The multi-band event will raise money for John Zorn’s artist’s womb, The Stone, and features a number of the Knitting Factory’s most famous alumni. Artists scheduled to appear include Zorn, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, MMW, Joe Lovano, Marc Ribot, Lee Ranaldo, Don Byron, and Mike Doughty, the latter of whom once worked the club’s door. The Knitting Factory, which currently has locations in New York and Los Angeles, helped define New York’s downtown music scene and now hosts an eclectic mix of music.
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