Creativity Quote by Norman Granz

There is a special kind of finality in the way Granz halves his own sentence. "I don't think" pretends to be tentative, then "ever" slams the door. The second line repeats the message with a shrugging cadence - "I rather think" - like he is trying to make peace with a decision he already made. It is resignation performed as understatement, a jazz-world version of saying: I have seen enough.

Coming from Norman Granz, that restraint is the tell. He wasn't just a "musician" so much as a power broker who built stages where Black artists could work with dignity - and where audiences were forced, sometimes literally, to confront integrated realities. In mid-century America, touring wasn't only about hauling a band and selling tickets; it was about navigating segregated hotels, discriminatory venues, and promoters who wanted the sound without the equality. Granz famously fought those terms, even canceling shows when venues wouldn't integrate. The weariness in this quote reads like the cost of that constant combat.

The subtext is also leverage. By framing the U.S. as "over with", Granz elevates Europe and elsewhere as viable, even preferable markets - places where jazz could be treated as high art rather than a racialized commodity. It's not just a personal retreat; it's a quiet indictment of a country that kept demanding brilliance while refusing basic respect.