Norman Granz Quotations

I'm talking as a professional impresario. I'm not judging anybody at all.

My juices needed restoring. I needed a sabbatical from the record business.

I don't say that the supposed Civil Rights development is a myth, but it's a matter of dealing with reality. It's purely peripheral and, in many cases, it's just a facade.

Ella can work nightclubs that Duke might not be able to work, because of having the big band. Where they go now is strictly a matter of their own names and talents.

The public, hearing pop music, is, without knowing it, also soaking up jazz.

If you look at my audiences, even in Europe, they're hardly teenagers.

Sponsors and networks will really go all out and simply evaluate people on the basis of talent.

To play today in London, next week in Madrid and the week after that in Warsaw is a bit better than playing Newark and Baltimore and Philadelphia. I've been doing that for 20 years.

I'm concerned with trend. I don't know where jazz fans will come from 20 years from now.

If I were to put on Barbra Streisand and Duke Ellington, one might say the combination isn't good.

Amsterdam must have more than a million people. But the only area where jazz is really profitable and successful in an economic sense is in Japan. That's because they haven't been exposed enough.

As long as we're in a democracy, I have to give what I think the majority of people will enjoy.

Ellington is a writer and arranger, as well as a musician and leader. He does movie sound tracks.

For years, Jazz At The Philharmonic albums were the only ones of their kind.

I allowed artists to play for as long as they felt they could justifiably continue to create.

I don't know who's 18 years old today that, 20 years hence, is going to be a jazz fan.

I don't think I will ever do any tours again in the United States. I rather think that that's over with.

I don't think that jazz, as any kind of an art form, has any permanence attached to it, apart from the practitioners of it.

I don't want to sound as if I'm doing something tremendously special. But I am a jazz fan.

I find myself more at peace when I live in Europe.

I made it easier for many artists to play in certain areas.

I still continue to do at least four concert tours a year, and in many cases, as many as six.

In 1958, I decided that I was going to live in Europe permanently. So in 1959 I moved to Lugano, Switzerland.

My function at Verve was that of a genuine producer in artists and repertoire.

Germany is probably the richest country in Western Europe. Yet they wouldn't take any television with Duke and Ella, their reaction being that people weren't interested in it.

There are many artists that I present that I admit I like less than I do others. But I think that they warrant being presented by my own, personal standards.

Many movie people, who would never have dreamt of using jazz arrangers for scores, are doing it frequently now, even though they water them down.

Today it's rare to find a major artist that would be willing to break up his own group. They need the musical security their own groups give them.

I still travel a great deal. I go to the States, not for too long periods, but I make frequent trips because of my management problems with Ella.

Of the newer people I would like to display to the public, I find it almost impossible to get them to agree to the jam session form.

The new, younger artists today are too insecure to be willing to face that kind of musical competition afforded by the jam session.

When I was doing jazz concerts in America, I would use the biggest names I could find.

Jazz was uplifted by what I did.

The economic picture in the States today doesn't allow for jazz concerts in a tour fashion. People now are too used to the Festival, which gives them more names for the same price.

The history of all big jazz bands shows was, first they played for dancing, and then they played for singing.

There are very few groups that really stay together. The leaders of groups make enough money to be able to afford to work a maximum of 35-40 weeks a year.

The record companies are interested in the kind of sales they can get from the rock groups.

You will always find a few people in any area that would like things done completely their way.

The whole reason for Jazz at the Philharmonic was to take it to places where I could break down segregation.

If you don't get substantially what you want, be ready to walk. And don't look back.

You’re probably smarter than you present yourself.

At Verve, my bookkeeper would invariably say, 'Well, why do you want to put out Roy Eldridge?' Or 'Why do you want to put out Ben Webster? They don't sell.' And I'd say, 'Well, whether they sell or not, they're important, they should be recorded and they're what Verve stands for, so we don't have to discuss that any further.

Jazz is America's own. It is played and listened to by all peoples - in harmony together. Pigmentation differences have no place... as in genuine democracy, only performance counts.

You can't have a finale that runs one hour. So you give each man 40 minutes or so, and you say: Let's do a jam session at the end with the leaders.