Unveiling an Experiment in Progress

Standing in the middle of a chaotic Hollywood Boulevard construction site six months ago, Michael Dorf, CEO of KnitMedia, was filled with visionary descriptions of his new Knitting Factory Hollywood.

Despite the chaotic construction, the concrete subfloors and the spare girders surrounding him, he insisted that a sparkling new state-of-the-art performance space--a showcase in the rapidly improving Hollywood Boulevard corridor between Highland and La Brea--would open in June.

Six months later, Dorf, a small, compact man in his late 30s, recalls his earlier optimism with a rueful grin. “Little did I know the kind of construction problems that were going to come up. But we couldn’t stop. We had to just keep trying to hit every single thing on our dream wish list.”

In the process of fulfilling the wish list, construction glitches kept delaying anticipated opening dates, which crept back from June to July to August and eventually into September.

And Dorf, now happily surrounded by a high-tech splendor that fulfills every one of his earlier depictions, can only smile again when he is reminded of the rocky road that led to the Knitting Factory Hollywood’s VIP grand opening Monday night.

“It hasn’t been easy,” he says. “We’ve made a sizable investment. The delay--at this point I prefer to call it a hiccup--meant that we had to pay a lot of artist guarantees, even if they didn’t play, and we had to push a lot of shows to other rooms.

“So obviously there was no way to get close to the money we would have made in our own house, and we’re out hundreds of thousands of dollars making sure we maintained our relationships with artists and didn’t burn any bridges in the community. And I’d be lying if I said that, during those check-writing exercises, with no income coming in from Los Angeles and no clear sense of when we were going to open, I wasn’t questioning what the hell we were getting ourselves into.”

Dorf started the tiny, original Knitting Factory in Lower Manhattan in 1987 as an art gallery-performance space. The name, according to his first press release, reflected “our aim to weave strands of art mediums into a congruent whole. . . .” Since that initial beginning in 2,000 square feet on one floor of a four-story walk-up, he has never hesitated to take on seemingly insurmountable challenges.

In 1989, he founded a New York City jazz festival--now known as the Texaco Festival--in direct competition with the venerable, well-established JVC Jazz Festival, which was produced by the man who virtually created the notion of jazz festivals in Newport in the ‘50s, George Wein. There was almost universal consensus that it would be a flop. But the Texaco Festival is now one of the country’s most vital jazz events. Not stopping there, Dorf last year added the Bell Atlantic Festival in Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.

“Michael has a way of doing what he says he’s going to do,” says Wein, who is on friendly terms with Dorf now that their festivals are scheduled in complementary rather than competitive time frames. “He’s very into the Internet, very into what’s happening today in the so-called Media Age. And I think that’s very important to the people who invest with him.” Dorf’s determination to expand to Los Angeles, however, was modified by his recognition that he would be moving into a vastly different market.

“New York is New York,” he says. “It sort of opens its arms a little bit more to the eccentric. Los Angeles, on the other hand, tends to set some standards for the commodity culture. So we knew, from Day One, that we were going to have to program things that are a little more commercial, a little more pop-oriented, a little more digestible--certainly for the Main Stage--to pay the bills. We also knew that, unlike New York, we would be doing a lot of parties, so we designed the space to function for those kinds of events.

But Dorf also recognized that the franchise associated with the Knitting Factory has emphasized its role as an important performance arena for edgy experimentalists of every stripe.

“That’s why we insisted upon creating a second room--the AlterKnit--as a more intimate performing space,” he explains. “We knew that the AlterKnit would be critical to support a lot of what maybe is considered our signature--support for experimental, avant-garde music. We need to make sure we stay in touch with that, and the AlterKnit allows us to do it. We’ll do play readings, poetry readings, experimental theater, as well as more traditional jazz--all the things we’ve always done in New York.”

With its close-in connection between audience and performers, the AlterKnit is a stylish space that brings a warm ambience to a trendy industrial look. Beyond the soundproofed walls, however, the AlterKnit--like the more expansive Main Stage--is a model of 21st century audio and video technology. Each has 24-track digital audio recording capability. The Main Stage has facilities for 16-camera video taping; the AlterKnit has facilities for six-camera taping.

With all the pieces in place and the Knitting Factory Hollywood up and running, Dorf believes the club will play an important role in the future of the entire Hollywood Boulevard area.

“We’re waiting for the rest of Hollywood Boulevard, for the rest of the projects in our building, and the rest of the TrizecHahn complex to catch up with us,” he says. “Because we’re part of the neighborhood now.”

Which raises the question of whether Dorf’s high-energy approach, which has not always been met favorably, even in the intensity of the New York City music world, will blend with the more mellow Hollywood style.

“I think Michael’s just what Hollywood needs,” says Oscar Arslanian, who just completed a term as chairman of the board of directors of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, and serves as festival director and board member for the Hollywood Arts Council. “We haven’t lacked for jazz clubs in Hollywood, but Michael is bringing in music that the other clubs might not bring in. So the club’s presence is important because their programming brings in a clientele that is above and beyond what is already on Hollywood Boulevard.”

Arslanian is also upbeat about Dorf’s ability to fit into the community as a businessman.

“Last October,” he says, “Michael addressed a luncheon meeting of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. And he received a really warm reception--warmer, he told me, than any he’d received in New York. I think he’s doing the right kind of things, he’s got the right kind of associations and he’s going to meld in pretty well.”

The success of the Knitting Factory Hollywood is obviously important to Dorf, but with nearly 100 employees in his other KnitMedia enterprises--a recording company, an interactive Web site, the jazz festivals--he has a broader game plan in mind.

“I’m not aloof about the numbers at the club. We need to make a profit from the beer, and we’re not giving away drinks at the bar. But we have a little longer view, as well, that in a certain sense may be more closely parallel to a House of Blues kind of thinking. In other words, the brand of the Knitting Factory, the creation of content, the development of a community of fans for the greater KnitMedia array of products, is ultimately a little more important than the short-term, bottom-line profits from the clubs.”

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Dorf is already deep into a plan to further enhance the KnitMedia presence in Los Angeles via a Hollywood Jazz Festival. Another such event might seem redundant in a city that already hosts the Playboy Jazz Festival, the Long Beach Jazz Festival, the Old Pasadena Jazz Festival and numerous other events. But Dorf is well aware that Los Angeles has not had a jazz festival that compares--in length or integration into the community--to festivals in New York, San Francisco, Montreal and elsewhere.

“Michael was already thinking about a Hollywood Jazz Festival when he first spoke with us at the chamber,” says Arslanian. “And if anyone can bring it off, he can.”

Dorf isn’t quite so confident, but he admits he has been excited by the possibility since he first became familiar with the Hollywood Boulevard area.

“I like the idea of closing the boulevard down between La Brea and Highland,” he says, his voice rising enthusiastically, “of setting up stages on both ends and offering a day of free music. Then, for a week or a week and a half, schedule events in the venues that make Hollywood a concert producer’s dream--unused theaters, clubs, places like Catalina’s, the Sunset Room, all kinds of rooms on the boulevard and the side streets.”

Dorf has one other potential trump card that could make the event a reality.

“We’ve been sponsored by Bell Atlantic for two years now for one of our festivals,” he says, “and now GTE and Bell Atlantic are merged into Verizon. When I brought to their attention the possibility of doing a big festival in Hollywood similar to what we’ve done in New York, they got very, very excited, and I got excited too. So, realistically, we have the support from the community, we have what seems to be a need, from a market perspective, for such an event, and, most important, we have interest from a sponsor. So I guess I could say something to the effect that a Hollywood Jazz Festival seems inevitable. The only question is how soon.”

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Obviously, the Knitting Factory Hollywood is going to represent something more than another music room for Los Angeles. In addition to the more visible activities at the club’s two performing venues and the plans for a Hollywood Jazz Festival, KnitMedia will play an active role in the local community through its recording company, its Web site and its television show, “Live at the Knit” on BET.

Performers, be they well- or lesser-known, can have a professional-quality recording made of their program, with the option to have it delivered live or later over the Internet. The Knitting Factory Hollywood, in other words, will be the home base for an entertainment conglomerate that encompasses both the mainstream and the outer limits of the music world.

But Dorf still savors the smaller pleasures that brought him into the business in the first place.

“I actually came to New York to start a record company,” he says. “I fell backwards into the club business to support that desire, and look where it led me. But, you know, with everything else that goes on, the moments that stand out are the times when I can introduce Ornette Coleman from the stage, or have dinner with Lou Reed, seeing a crowd respond to something new and exciting that we’re doing, or writing a royalty check to Charles Gayle.

“Those are the times,” concludes Dorf, “when I can forget that I’ve got troubles and problems, that I need to worry about payroll and things like that, and realize that I’m actually living a dream on some level, having a ball.”