Top 30 Norman Granz Quotes (2025 Update)

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

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

3. “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.”

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

6. “I’m talking as a professional impresario. I’m not judging anybody at all.”

— Norman Granz

7. “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.”

— Norman Granz

8. “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.”

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

10. “I find myself more at peace when I live in Europe.”

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

12. “You’re probably smarter than you present yourself.”

— Norman Granz

13. “If you don’t get substantially what you want, be ready to walk. And don’t look back.”

— Norman Granz

14. “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.”

— Norman Granz

15. “I don’t want to sound as if I’m doing something tremendously special. But I am a jazz fan.”

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

18. “If you look at my audiences, even in Europe, they’re hardly teenagers.”

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

22. “Jazz was uplifted by what I did.”

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

26. “I’m concerned with trend. I don’t know where jazz fans will come from 20 years from now.”

— Norman Granz

27. “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.”

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

30. “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.”

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz

33. “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.”

— Norman Granz

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

— Norman Granz