James Chance, No Wave Icon and Saxophonist of the Contortions, Dies at 71
variety.comPat Saperstein Deputy Editor James Chance, the confrontational, controversial saxophonist and singer of the Contortions and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, who helped start the No Wave movement of the late 1970s in New York City, died Tuesday in New York, his Facebook page confirmed.
He was 71. “His death was announced by his brother David Siegfried of Chicago, who did not specify a cause of death but noted that the musician’s health had been in decline for several years,” the statement said. “His final live performance is believed to have taken place in March 2019 in Utrecht, The Netherlands,” according to the statement.
Born James Siegfried in Milwaukee, Chance was also known as James White in his group James White and the Blacks. He also played his improvisational jazz-punk-noise in bands such as the Flaming Demonics, James Chance & the Sardonic Symphonics, James Chance and Terminal City and James Chance and Les Contortions.
After playing in a band named Death in Milwaukee, Chance moved to New York City and joined the band Flaming Youth in 1976. With his roommate, the equally noise-friendly Lydia Lunch, he started Teenage Jesus and the Jerks.
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