Norman Granz Quotes

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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 find myself more at peace when I live in Europe.

Jazz was uplifted by what I did.