A week or so ago I posted a wonderful clip of crooner Russ Columbo from a 1934 film called ‘Wake Up and Dream’. Columbo had a meteoric rise and was riding high when he died after a gun he was cleaning discharged in his face. I tend to believe the ‘gun-cleaning’ accidental death stories about as much as I believe the prison ‘he hung himself in his cell’ stories. Both are pretty obvious cover-ups, though I can’t imagine what Columbo had done to provoke his untimely death. (Or, for that matter, why he or anyone would think cleaning a gun was a good idea). In any event, here he is just five years earlier in 1928 and not yet a star. He’s featured as part of a vocal trio–Columbo sings and plays violin–and he doesn’t even get any solo time. This is the same story as Bing Crosby and the Rhythm Boys in the exact same period. Both soon-to-be star crooners were still stuck in an act that they would surpass. The band is Gus Arnheim’s Ambassadors and they are one cooking outfit–the arrangements are top-notch and the playing is tight and punchy. Of course we’re in the pre-swing world so you have to adjust to the two-beat, old-school jazz vibe. But if you can get past its antiquity I think you’ll admire the musicianship all around.