How do you organize it?

[Claude]

I arrange it mostly by style or historical relationship. So Coltrane is followed by Miles, and then come the Miles sideman (Hancock, Shorter). Bebop artists like Bird, Bud Powell and Dizzy Gillespie are also side by side, although I have more non-bebop Dizzy CDs.

But as my collection grows and I have more and more difficulties in finding CDs immediately, I may switch to a strict alphabetical listing.

[Alexander]

I've done this before, but I like talking about it, so I'll do it again.

My CDs are alphabetical by artist, then chronological by first recording date. In the case of multiple artists (Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt, for example) I file it by the first artist listed. So Al Cohn and Zoot Sims goes under 'C,' but Zoot Sims and Al Cohn goes under 'S'! Box sets are generally shelved before the artist's other discs, although this is hardly a hard and fast rule. Since many Mosaic sets cover specific periods, I find that I shelve these chronologically along with the artist's other discs. Other box sets (I'm not sure why) I shelve *after* the artist's other discs (this is the case with both The Beatles and James Brown). Basically, I take box sets on a case-by-case basis. I do keep various artist CDs under 'V'.

My CDs are organized into four categories: Jazz, Rock/Pop/Country/Blues/Soul/Funk (all shelved together alphabetically by artist), Folk, and Classical. Why do I keep Folk separate from the other discs? I don't know. I've considered creating a separate Blues category, but I feel that if I do that, I'd have to separate out Country, etc. So I keep my four general categories, and don't think about it too much.

Tell a lie, I do have a fifth category for holiday music. I generally keep that stuff put away until the holidays, when I take it out and put it in the living room.

[gdogus]

Alexander's system is exactly mine - right down to the idiosyncratic placement of box sets. Interesting. (But probably only to me.)

Edited March 23, 2004 by gdogus

[Gary]

I've run out of room to keep everything together but on my main shelving .

On there I've tried to put all my Blue Note Cds in their original BNLP cat # order with other Blue Notes at the end.

My

Mosaics

Selects

Trane

Miles

Ayler

are all together (except boots) , but everything else is a bit all over the place (& piled up in the cabinet under the fish tank).