Creativity Quote by Norman Granz

Granz isn’t hand-wringing about taste; he’s talking about supply chains of attention. “Trend” here is a blunt, almost managerial word for something jazz has always had a complicated relationship with: popularity as both lifeline and betrayal. Coming from the impresario who built Jazz at the Philharmonic, fought segregation on tour, and packaged virtuosity for big rooms, the line reads like a veteran promoter admitting the quiet terror behind every “timeless” art form: time still moves, and audiences don’t reproduce automatically.

The subtext is generational. Jazz’s core fans were forged in specific conditions - radio, dance halls, postwar nightlife, an ecosystem where a new record could feel like a public event. Granz is looking ahead to a world where those institutions thin out, where the next cohort’s default soundtrack is elsewhere. He’s not asking whether jazz will be good in 20 years; he’s asking who will be trained to care.

It also hints at Granz’s particular pragmatism. This is the guy who treated dignity as part of the show budget, insisting on integrated venues and fair pay. So the anxiety isn’t just aesthetic; it’s ethical and economic. If jazz becomes a museum culture, musicians lose leverage, and the music’s rebellious social charge gets replaced by reverence. “Where will fans come from?” is really “Who will build the conditions for listening?” - schools, clubs, media, and gatekeepers willing to put improvisation back in the present tense.