Jazz Articles about Curly "Duck" Flebber

Curly "Duck" Flebber: The Lost Duck Tapes

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
April 1, 2004

Most scholars agree that it was the immortal Curly “Duck" Flebber who invented rebop , the style of jazz that focused on reworking bebop to make it more comprehensible for the general audience. Driven by his revolutionary vision—encapsulated in his most famous principle, “Slow it down, dammit!"—Duck strived to capture the harmonic essence of bebop while producing music that was danceable. His first attempt was his classic 30-minute ballad “Cocoa," which he released on his own Rebop label, but the ...