"In 1958, I decided that I was going to live in Europe permanently. So in 1959 I moved to Lugano, Switzerland"
About this Quote
A single logistical sentence, delivered with the calm finality of a closing chord, tells you almost everything about Norman Granz: the power broker who never needed to announce he was one. “I decided” sits at the center like a blunt instrument. No romance, no backstory, no handwringing. For a figure who built Jazz at the Philharmonic, fought segregated venues, and negotiated with the hard-eyed precision of a lawyer, this is the voice of someone who treats life the way he treated contracts: decide, execute, move on.
The years matter. 1958-59 is postwar Europe at peak American allure, and also the moment when jazz begins to shift from popular entertainment to a more rarefied, exportable art form. Moving to Lugano is not bohemian exile; it’s strategic distance. Switzerland signals privacy, stability, money. It’s a place where a producer with serious catalog rights and serious artists can operate beyond the daily grind of the U.S. industry, its moral hypocrisies, and its constant churn.
The subtext is control. Granz isn’t “fleeing”; he’s repositioning. Europe becomes both sanctuary and marketplace, a way to keep jazz’s prestige high while protecting his own leverage. There’s also a quiet rebuke embedded in the simplicity: if America couldn’t fully respect the music or the musicians, he could choose a different center of gravity. The quote’s spareness is the point. It’s not a confession. It’s a business move, stated like fact, because for Granz, it was.
The years matter. 1958-59 is postwar Europe at peak American allure, and also the moment when jazz begins to shift from popular entertainment to a more rarefied, exportable art form. Moving to Lugano is not bohemian exile; it’s strategic distance. Switzerland signals privacy, stability, money. It’s a place where a producer with serious catalog rights and serious artists can operate beyond the daily grind of the U.S. industry, its moral hypocrisies, and its constant churn.
The subtext is control. Granz isn’t “fleeing”; he’s repositioning. Europe becomes both sanctuary and marketplace, a way to keep jazz’s prestige high while protecting his own leverage. There’s also a quiet rebuke embedded in the simplicity: if America couldn’t fully respect the music or the musicians, he could choose a different center of gravity. The quote’s spareness is the point. It’s not a confession. It’s a business move, stated like fact, because for Granz, it was.
Quote Details
| Topic | New Beginnings |
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