Creativity Quote by Norman Granz

Granz is letting the glamour speak for itself, then puncturing it with a deadpan time stamp: 20 years. The line opens like a humblebrag about jet-set prestige, but the real target is the grinding geography of American touring. Newark-Baltimore-Philadelphia isn’t just a list of cities; it’s a loop, a corridor, a life lived on highways and in identical backstage rooms. By contrasting it with London-Madrid-Warsaw, he’s not only ranking postcards. He’s ranking audiences, institutions, and respect.

The subtext is cultural and racial as much as logistical. Granz built Jazz at the Philharmonic in an era when jazz musicians could be adored onstage and demeaned off it, especially in the U.S. Europe, for many Black American jazz players, offered a cleaner transaction: less segregation, more civic cachet, critics who treated the music like art rather than nightlife. When Granz calls the European itinerary “a bit better,” the understatement is the point; he’s been around long enough to know enthusiasm can curdle into cliché, and he refuses to sell romance when what he means is relief.

Contextually, it’s also a producer’s calculus. International dates mean higher fees, stronger branding, a sense that the music is moving history, not just filling rooms. The throwaway “I’ve been doing that for 20 years” lands like a weary credential and a quiet indictment: if it took two decades to trade the Northeast circuit for capitals, that says as much about American cultural priorities as it does about his ambition.