OK, my "jazz musician algebra" post was trivial and a non-starter. But

this group is dead and I'm too short on time to come up with something

insightful and thought-provoking.

So I propose just as a harmless way to pass the time, we trivialize

jazz by pretending we're drafting a combo like we were an NBA team.

You have to draft a six-member combo (trumpet, sax, piano, bass, drums

and wildcard (any instrument, including an extra sax or trumpeter if

you choose, or vocalist) over six rounds. Musicians can be drawn

throughout jazz history. You can try to draft the "best combo

possible" without attention to meshing styles, with Louis on trumpet

and Elvin on drums, or you can try to keep a classic group intact.

We'll see how many people will sign up to be "general managers," and

we'll start the draft with as many people as are interested. Then I

will randomly draw up a draft order, and we'll do six rounds, with

each "general manager" picking one musician per round.

Sound stupid? Of course! But hopefully it will be fun. So if you're

interested, just follow up this post with "I'm in."

The Arranger