Gary Kurfirst Record Executive Music Manager Dies

A figure in pop music for more than four decades, Kurfirst opened the Village Theater in Manhattan in 1967. The venue later became the Fillmore East. In 1968, he staged the New York Rock Festival in Flushing Meadows Park, which featured Janis Joplin and the Doors. He later started the management company Overland Productions and its successor, Kurfirst-Blackwell Entertainment. He also founded Radioactive Records and the music publishing companies Loco de Amor and Mucho Loco Music. In the late 1960s, he turned to artist management, handling reggae artists including Peter Tosh and Toots and the Maytals. Kurfirst turned to film in the 1980s, producing movies including Stop Making Sense, the performance film of the Talking Heads that was directed by Jonathan Demme.