He founded the record labels Clef, Norgran, Down Home, Verve, and Pablo and the Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series.

[2] Born in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, Granz was the son of Jewish immigrants[2] from Tiraspol (now in Moldova).

In 1956, Granz also signed an agreement with the A&R Ben Selvin to showcase several JATP recordings within the RCA Thesaurus library, including performances by such jazz luminaries as Count Basie, Roy Eldridge, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Gene Krupa, Oscar Peterson, and Art Tatum.

In 1950, he married Loretta (née Snyder) Sullivan from Michigan; they had a daughter together, Stormont Granz, who was disabled due to lack of oxygen during the birth.

In 1955, in Houston, he removed signs that previously designated "White" and "Negro" restrooms outside the auditorium where two concerts were to be performed by Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie.

Between the two shows, Fitzgerald and Gillespie and Illinois Jacquet were shooting small-stakes dice in the dressing room to kill time, when the local police barged in and arrested them.

[6] Oscar Peterson recounted how Granz once insisted that white cabdrivers take his black artists as customers, while a policeman pointed a loaded pistol at his stomach.

Granz also was among the first to pay white and black artists the same salary, and to give them equal treatment even in minor details such as dressing rooms.

Many of the names that made history in jazz signed with one of Norman Granz's labels, including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Mort Sahl, Louie Bellson, Benny Carter, Buck Clayton, Buddy DeFranco, Roy Eldridge, Herb Ellis, Tal Farlow, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Billie Holiday, Illinois Jacquet, Hank Jones, Gene Krupa, Anita O'Day (the first artist to sign with Verve), Charlie Parker, Joe Pass, Oscar Peterson, Flip Phillips, Bud Powell, Buddy Rich, Sonny Stitt, Slim Gaillard, Art Tatum, Ben Webster and Lester Young.

[3] In 1944, Granz and Gjon Mili produced the jazz film Jammin' the Blues,[4] which starred Lester Young, Illinois Jacquet, Barney Kessel, Harry Edison, Jo Jones, Sidney Catlett, Marlowe Morris, and Marie Bryant, and was nominated for an Academy Award.