|
|
After being distraught with the death of Kayla Zane, Dean channeled that mourning, anger, and depression to create his masterpiece with The Crime Scene Trilogy. Friends convinced Dean, and even Kevin Greenfield, that Kayla would want them to enjoy life and to move on. This timeframe was in the spring of 1959. Both men decided it would be the perfect time to resurrect a project they always talked about doing together - an album of jazz music that would be a perfect companion to the King Bennett novels. Dean and Kevin assembled a premium list of the hottest jazz and session musicians they could find. Many of these guys were already friends of theirs from either interviewing them for Girlie-Q or from meeting them at various clubs where they performed. Dean and Kevin also played on this album during various tracks with Dean taking drums and trumpet and Kevin playing sax. The unique title for this record came from some slang terminology that was a staple in the King Bennett books. To "be" with a woman meant to make love to her. That expression came from a Three Stooges comedy that Dean and some friends were watching where Moe said, "Eat, drink, and be merry!" to which Curly's reply was, "Who's Mary?" King Bennett would use the term "to be or not to be" whenever he was in the dilemma of deciding whether or not to get intimate with a female in his life. The answer nine times out of ten was "to be" unless she was a client or a suspect in a case. But, as soon as the case was solved and there were no professional ties binding them, well...as King would tell the female in question, "Let's be together, which sure beats being alone." In the liner notes was a chart that showed what song to play while reading a certain section in the King Bennett novel listed alongside it. One record store in New York called Finchie's even sold the books in the list up at the counter so you could get the total package in one place. The promotion worked and Finchie's sold over a thousand sets of the books in just two weeks! The album was put out by Green Eagle Records which was actually financed by Otto Greenfield as a separate company from his publishing business. To Be or Not to Be was the only album ever released by Green Eagle and it’s catalog number is: GER000100. To Be or Not to Be spent three weeks at number one on Billboard's Jazz chart and peaked at number four for a month on Billboard's Popular Music chart. The album went gold. Side 1
Side 2
This LP record can occasionally be found on an Internet auction site with the final bid somewhere in the $25 range. |
