Norman Granz quotes
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“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 -
“I find myself more at peace when I live in Europe.”
-- Norman Granz -
“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 -
“Sponsors and networks will really go all out and simply evaluate people on the basis of talent.”
-- Norman Granz -
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“My function at Verve was that of a genuine producer in artists and repertoire.”
-- Norman Granz -
“In 1958, I decided that I was going to live in Europe permanently. So in 1959 I moved to Lugano, Switzerland.”
-- Norman Granz -
“If you look at my audiences, even in Europe, they're hardly teenagers.”
-- Norman Granz -
“My juices needed restoring. I needed a sabbatical from the record business.”
-- Norman Granz -
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“If I were to put on Barbra Streisand and Duke Ellington, one might say the combination isn't good.”
-- Norman Granz -
“I'm talking as a professional impresario. I'm not judging anybody at all.”
-- Norman Granz -
“I still continue to do at least four concert tours a year, and in many cases, as many as six.”
-- Norman Granz -
“I made it easier for many artists to play in certain areas.”
-- Norman Granz -
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“You’re probably smarter than you present yourself.”
-- Norman Granz -
“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 -
“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 -
“When I was doing jazz concerts in America, I would use the biggest names I could find.”
-- Norman Granz -
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“You will always find a few people in any area that would like things done completely their way.”
-- Norman Granz -
“The history of all big jazz bands shows was, first they played for dancing, and then they played for singing.”
-- Norman Granz -
“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 -
“I'm concerned with trend. I don't know where jazz fans will come from 20 years from now.”
-- Norman Granz -
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“As long as we're in a democracy, I have to give what I think the majority of people will enjoy.”
-- Norman Granz -
“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 -
“For years, Jazz At The Philharmonic albums were the only ones of their kind.”
-- Norman Granz -
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“Ellington is a writer and arranger, as well as a musician and leader. He does movie sound tracks.”
-- Norman Granz -
“I allowed artists to play for as long as they felt they could justifiably continue to create.”
-- Norman Granz -
“I don't know who's 18 years old today that, 20 years hence, is going to be a jazz fan.”
-- Norman Granz -
“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 -
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“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 -
“I don't want to sound as if I'm doing something tremendously special. But I am a jazz fan.”
-- Norman Granz -
“The public, hearing pop music, is, without knowing it, also soaking up jazz.”
-- Norman Granz -
“The record companies are interested in the kind of sales they can get from the rock groups.”
-- Norman Granz -
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