Gary Kurfirst
Encyclopedia
Gary Kurfirst was an influential figure in late 20th and early 21st century pop music as a promoter, producer, manager, and record label
executive.
. He started promoting dances while he was still a student at Forest Hills High School
in Queens
. He rapidly moved on to organizing and promoting shows at the tennis stadium at the West Side Tennis Club
in Forest Hills and moving across the East River
to promoting gigs in Manhattan
. Kurfirst helped arrange the first East Coast
performances of acts including Jimi Hendrix
and The Who
.
at Second Avenue
at Sixth Street in 1967, which a year later became the Fillmore East
under the management of promoter Bill Graham
. In August 1968, Kurfist organized the New York Rock Festival at the Singer Bowl
in Flushing Meadow Park, an open-air concert with 18,000 in attendance that featured performances by The Chambers Brothers
, The Doors
, Jimi Hendrix
, Janis Joplin
, and the Soft Machine
. In his obituary, The New York Times
credited Kurfirst's success at the New York Rock Festival with inspiring the creation of the Woodstock Festival
in Bethel, New York
in August 1969.
While negotiating a contract for the group Mountain
in the late 1960s, Kurfirst developed a close relationship with Chris Blackwell
, his counterpart at Island Records
. Blackwell, quoted in Kurfirst's obituary in The New York Times
, described him as "one of the first managers who basically built the rock business", stating that Kurfirst "stayed below the radar and once refused the cover of Rolling Stone
because he felt it was not the right time for his band".
Kurfirst managed reggae artists The Wailers founder Peter Tosh
and Toots & the Maytals
. His reach spanned new wave, reggae, punk, rock, and pop. His client list as manager included the Ramones
, Blondie
, Talking Heads
, Tom Tom Club
, the B-52's
, Eurythmics
, and Jane's Addiction
.
, Stop Making Sense
, True Stories
, and a documentary about the Ramones.
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
executive.
Early years
Kurfirst was born in Forest Hills, QueensForest Hills, Queens
Forest Hills is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, United States.-Neighborhood:The neighborhood is home to upper-middle class residents, of whom the wealthier residents often live in the neighborhood's Forest Hills Gardens area...
. He started promoting dances while he was still a student at Forest Hills High School
Forest Hills High School
Forest Hills High School , dedicated in 1937, is a public secondary school in Queens, New York City. It educates students in grades 9–12 and is operated by the New York City Department of Education.- Location :...
in Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
. He rapidly moved on to organizing and promoting shows at the tennis stadium at the West Side Tennis Club
West Side Tennis Club
The West Side Tennis Club is a private tennis club located in Forest Hills, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is currently an oasis within the City with 38 courts in all four surfaces , a junior Olympic swimming pool and many other amenities.It is most notable for hosting...
in Forest Hills and moving across the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
to promoting gigs in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Kurfirst helped arrange the first East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
performances of acts including Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
and The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
.
Career
He established the Village Theater in the East VillageEast Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
at Second Avenue
Second Avenue (Manhattan)
Second Avenue is an avenue on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan extending from Houston Street at its south end to the Harlem River Drive at 128th Street at its north end. A one-way street, vehicular traffic runs only downtown. A bicycle lane in the left hand portion from 55th...
at Sixth Street in 1967, which a year later became the Fillmore East
Fillmore East
The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the East Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City. It was open from 1968 to 1971, and featured some of the biggest acts in rock music at the time...
under the management of promoter Bill Graham
Bill Graham (promoter)
Bill Graham was an American impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death.-Early life:...
. In August 1968, Kurfist organized the New York Rock Festival at the Singer Bowl
Singer Bowl
The Singer Bowl is a stadium that formerly stood in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, in the New York City borough of Queens. The stadium was built for events during the 1964 World's Fair, also hosting various Olympic trials and concerts over the years....
in Flushing Meadow Park, an open-air concert with 18,000 in attendance that featured performances by The Chambers Brothers
The Chambers Brothers
The Chambers Brothers is a soul-music group, best known for its 1968 hit record, the 11-minute long song "Time Has Come Today". The group was part of the wave of new music that integrated American blues and gospel traditions with modern psychedelic and rock elements, spawning a heady mix...
, The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
, Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
, and the Soft Machine
Soft Machine
Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...
. In his obituary, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
credited Kurfirst's success at the New York Rock Festival with inspiring the creation of the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
in Bethel, New York
Bethel, New York
Bethel is a town in Sullivan County, New York, USA. The population has been estimated at 4,532 in 2007.The town received worldwide fame after it became the host of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, which was originally planned for Wallkill, New York, but was relocated to Bethel after Wallkill withdrew.-...
in August 1969.
While negotiating a contract for the group Mountain
Mountain (band)
Mountain is an American hard rock band that formed in Long Island, New York in 1969. Originally comprising vocalist and guitarist Leslie West, bassist Felix Pappalardi and drummer N. D. Smart, the band broke up in 1972 before reuniting in 1974 and remaining active until today...
in the late 1960s, Kurfirst developed a close relationship with Chris Blackwell
Chris Blackwell
Christopher Percy Gordon "Chris" Blackwell is a British record producer and businessman, who was the founder of Island Records, acknowledged as the most successful and groundbreaking independent record company in history. Blackwell has been a music industry mogul for over fifty years...
, his counterpart at Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
. Blackwell, quoted in Kurfirst's obituary in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, described him as "one of the first managers who basically built the rock business", stating that Kurfirst "stayed below the radar and once refused the cover of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
because he felt it was not the right time for his band".
Kurfirst managed reggae artists The Wailers founder Peter Tosh
Peter Tosh
Peter Tosh, born Winston Hubert McIntosh , was a Jamaican reggae musician who was a core member of the band The Wailers , and who afterward had a successful solo career as well as being a promoter of Rastafari.Peter Tosh was born in Grange Hill, Jamaica, an illegitimate child to a mother too young...
and Toots & the Maytals
Toots & the Maytals
Toots and the Maytals, originally called simply The Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group and one of the best known ska and reggae vocal groups. According to Sandra Brennan at Allmusic, "The Maytals were key figures in reggae music...
. His reach spanned new wave, reggae, punk, rock, and pop. His client list as manager included the Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
, Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
, Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
, Tom Tom Club
Tom Tom Club
Tom Tom Club is an American new wave band founded in 1981 by husband-and-wife team Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, both also known for being bandmembers of Talking Heads.-Biography:...
, the B-52's
The B-52's
The B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...
, Eurythmics
Eurythmics
Eurythmics were a British pop rock duo, formed in 1980, currently disbanded, but known to reunite from time to time. Consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A...
, and Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction is an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band's original line-up featured Perry Farrell , Dave Navarro , Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins . After breaking up in 1991, Jane's Addiction briefly reunited in 1997 and again in 2001, both times...
.
Films
Kurfirst also produced four films, including SiestaSiesta (film)
Siesta is a 1987 film directed by Mary Lambert, and starring Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne and Jodie Foster. It also stars Martin Sheen, Isabella Rossellini, Grace Jones, Julian Sands and Alexei Sayle....
, Stop Making Sense
Stop Making Sense
Stop Making Sense is a concert movie featuring Talking Heads live on stage. Directed by Jonathan Demme, it was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December 1983, as the group was touring to promote their new album Speaking in Tongues. The movie is notable for...
, True Stories
True Stories (film)
True Stories is an American film that spans the genres of musical, art, and comedy, directed by and starring David Byrne of the band Talking Heads. It co-stars John Goodman, Swoosie Kurtz, and Spalding Gray. Byrne has described the film as, "A project with songs based on true stories from tabloid...
, and a documentary about the Ramones.