Organizing LPs

[Leeway]

My practice has been to keep all my Blue Note LPs together and segregated from the other LPs. I like to see all my Blue Notes in one place-- makes me feel good to look at them -- and also helps me see if I have a particular BN LP.

The disadvantage is that I often have to split an artist's work between the BN section and the non-BN section. For example, Dexter Gordon's BN LPs are in one section, his other label LPs are in the other section. Not a big problem really, but perhaps a rather clunky way to do things.

Does anyone else do this? Just wondering how others care for their BN LPs. Do you separate your BN LPs? by artist? LP number#? What works for you?

[JohnS]

I keep my BN lps together, in artist order. I do much the same for other labels (Verve, Savoy, Prestige) where I have a significant amount.

Works for me.

[Peter Johnson]

I now have them in alpha order by artist, then by label, and within the label, by catalog number (anal!). But I've often thought about segregating the BN's, and arranging them in order by catalog number. It might change my listening habits too. Anyone else do it the way I'm thinking about doing it?

[alejo]

At the moment I have my jazz LP’s loosely sorted alphabetically by artist. I have also been thinking of separating label outputs. As I pick up more LPs from the Hat Hut, Hat Art, Black Saint/Soul Note, Horo, Sackville, Nessa catalogs, I will slowly begin file them together by label – though I am having a hard time finding any Hat Art/Hut records out here in the Pacific Northwest. Anywho, it is interesting to have the varied and sometimes challenging music released on these labels together in one place for easy access. As for classical or misc type LPs, those are pretty much still stored pell-mell.

[Jazzmoose]

This is strange, but as anal as I am about the CDs, my LPs are just all a-jumble in their cubes. Everytime I go through them it's an adventure. I don't know why this is, other than that CDs are easy to organize. If I try to organize my LPs, I get bogged down in listening before I get too far. Hard to call that a negative, though...

[sidewinder]

I tend to keep the BN Lps together - Lex/4763/NYUSA pressings with pride of place, Kings/Toshibas next and then the Pathe Marconis hidden off in the sidelines (not to mention at least one 'Applause' frisbee which should be marked 'condemned') . Also have a separate breakout area for the Impulses. I also have a bit of a separate area for West Coast Jazz. The one artist who gets his own row of a record rack is Miles Davis, otherwise chaos reigns when it comes to ordering !

Edited March 19, 2004 by sidewinder

[MartyJazz]

Wow. Everybody has their own method. I could never see doing it strictly alphabetically because then you would have the Art Ensemble right next to Armstrong, too strange a juxtaposition for my taste. I don't like doing it by label because I think the artist should take precedence over whatever label he may have recorded on at any one time. My solution demands that whoever is viewing my collection has to have a grounding in jazz history. Consequently, I order them stylistically, e.g., New Orleans, Chicago, Swing, Bop, Hard Bop, Avant Garde, etc. Within these categories, there are artists that have entire sections devoted to them, e.g., Ellington, Basie, Parker, Monk, etc. All the giants and those who have made many recordings each have a cardboard 13" by 12" tab with their name dynotaped so as to more easily spot their section. Each musical style has various subsections, e.g., swing trumpet that houses recordings by Henry Red Allen, Buck Clayton, Roy Eldridge, etc. While on the whole, it's satisfactory for me, I admit that once in a while, I have difficulty locating a particular recording especially if the artist has traversed over quite a few styles in his career, e.g., Steve Lacy.

[chris olivarez]

Anality really comes into play here . If I organized my albums at all it would be alphabetically.

[Dmitry]

Mine are oranized by genre, i.e., jazz, classical, etc; then alphabetically by artist.

It makes the most sense for me.

After I acquire a record cleaning machine of my dreams one of these days I will clean the rest of my Lps, about 500 I haven't listened to yet, and then I will organize them further chronologically for each artist.

[paul secor]

Mine are oranized by genre, i.e., jazz, classical, etc; then alphabetically by artist.

It makes the most sense for me.

Same here, except one more step. I organize the artists chronologically (and various artists collections also, as much as possible). I guess this sounds pretty anal retentive, but I find that I can find things easily this way.

I have a musician friend who has his collection organized strictly alphabetically by artist, regardless of genre. He says that he likes seeing Eric Dolphy next to Fats Domino, etc. I've never tried that, but thinking about it now, it might make for some interesting listening connections. The next time I speak with him, I'll have to ask about it.

Edited March 20, 2004 by paul secor

[JSngry]

I organize mine by smell.

[Jazzmoose]

I organize mine by smell.

That wouldn't help with the gatefold rock albums for me; they all smell kind of skunky...

[chris olivarez]

I organize mine by smell.

That wouldn't help with the gatefold rock albums for me; they all smell kind of skunky...

Jazzmoose,Jazzmoose.

[JSngry]

I have seperate rooms for skunky and musty, of which there are plenty of each. However, my insurance company is giving me shit about moldy, so...

[chris olivarez]

I hear they won't pay off if there's fungus involved.

[Bill Nelson]

I use the same system described by Paul Secor:

1. ALL jazz artists are alphabetized, and

2. Each artist's ouput is arranged chronologically.

Various Artists are at the end, arranged by record label.

Not terribly difficult or anal.

I've heard of one collector who files his LPs strictly in the order

he acquired them. (I'd love to go thru his bag at a record show

and then 'shuffle the deck' when he wasn't looking).

[7/4]

I organize mine by smell.

That wouldn't help with the gatefold rock albums for me; they all smell kind of skunky...

[7/4]

Jazz by alpha in milk crages stacked on wood crates full of rock by alpha, "world" and classical by alpha in seperate shelves.

[Dmitry]

Mine are oranized by genre, i.e., jazz, classical, etc; then alphabetically by artist.

It makes the most sense for me.

Same here, except one more step. I organize the artists chronologically (and various artists collections also, as much as possible). I guess this sounds pretty anal retentive, but I find that I can find things easily this way.

Paul, that's exactly what I'm planning to do after I finally sift through my collection.

[patricia]

Right now my vinyl is *arranged* if you can call it that, in the order in which I acquired them[!!!!]. So, that means that they range from jazz, to classical, to r&b, in no particular order. It's a dog's breakfast. I will organize them alphabetically, period.

I'm amazed at the care and attention that you all take in organizing your collections.

The reason that I prefer strictly alphabetical is that I tend to get positively apoplectic if someone puts a record [or a CD] back in the wrong place. If they had the music out for any length of time, they wouldn't know all the other sub-catagories in which they may fall. If I did that, I would be asking for the house gun, within a week.

Edited March 20, 2004 by patricia

[TedR]

JSngry: "I organize mine by smell":

Anyone familiar with Harvey Pekar's American Splendor comic book? The movie of the same name was just released on dvd. Anyway, one comic book episode has him struggling to sell part of his 8,000 or so LPs because his wife is complaining about the lack of space. His cat pees on one of his valuable Charlie Parker albums. As a result he takes it, among others, to a used vinyl place where the clerk behind the desk tells him that (paraphrasing here) "records that smell like cat piss just don't sell well here".

[Free For All]

I organize mine by smell.

It's funny, in college the double lps were ideal for cleaning weed, and every now and then I'll pull out an album and find seeds inside.

Ah, the good old days.......

[Brandon Burke]

1. ALL jazz artists are alphabetized, and

2. Each artist's ouput is arranged chronologically.

Various Artists are at the end.

Yup.

[clifford_thornton]

1. ALL jazz artists are alphabetized, and

2. Each artist's ouput is arranged chronologically.

Various Artists are at the end.

Yup.

Brandon, you're the librarian -- can't you think of anything better?!?

[Brandon Burke]

1. ALL jazz artists are alphabetized, and

2. Each artist's ouput is arranged chronologically.

Various Artists are at the end.

Yup.

Brandon, you're the librarian -- can't you think of anything better?!?

Hey man, you're welcome to look up all of those LC call numbers. Don't let me stop ya. Meanwhile, I'll be kicking back, enjoying our fine weather, and listening to "Five Spot After Dark".

Lemme know when you're done........