How do you guys sort your jazz records? Alphabetically and/or chronologically? By label? By country? By "category"? By sub-genre? By instrument? I can't find the perfect way to sort my collection but I am more and more inclined in sorting by leader main instrument.
- Alphabetically and then chronologically is the easiest way but not the best when I am in a certain mood and want to hear something to match with my mood.
- By label is nice because it looks beautiful on the shelves due to the spines looks similar (ex: all Blue Note records together) but it splits a lot of musicians discographies.
- By country is cool too, even more since my collection is mostly made of American, Japanese and British records. But what to do with the few Belgian, French or Portuguese records I have? They deserve more than a ROW section.
- By "category" could work but I am afraid I would get lost easily. I could have a "monsters of jazz" section with all BN, Verve, etc... classics, a "j-jazz" section, a "uk jazz", etc... Where to stop?
By sub-genre? There are
so many and there will be records that could fit two or more sub-genre and I would spend nights and nights thinking about it, trying to find a solution.
- Finally by instrument and it's the sorting I prefer. First, I can't (and don't want to) remember of any jazz musician who was/is a monster in more than one instrument (if you do, please don't tell). Second, you can mix all countries, labels, categories, sub-genres, etc... You can sub-sort in the way you want even though the coolest, IMO, is chronologically. Imagine your Saxophone section with Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, Wayne Shorter, Muriel Grossmann and Nubya Garcia (among many others).