Biography
In the latter part of the 1970s James Siegfried, who performed under the name James Chance, assembled the Contortions, a unit whose music fused punk with harmolodic jazz. Together with Bill Laswell’s Material and James Blood Ulmer, the group formed the backbone of New York’s no wave scene. Chance’s deep engagement with avant-garde jazz, combined with a fiercely singular saxophone technique that merged the raw force of Captain Beefheart and Maceo Parker, gave the music an unmatched, razor-sharp intensity.
The original Contortions featured Chance, Pat Place on guitar, Jody Harris on guitar, Adele Bertei on keyboards, George Scott III on bass, and Don Christensen on drums. The band first appeared on record in 1978 with the compilation No New York, a landmark document of the city’s no wave activity. Their experimental marriage of punk, free jazz, and funk reached its most striking realization on the album Buy, released by the then-fashionable Ze label.
Following the Contortions’ breakup, three concert recordings preserved the force of their live performances. A later iteration operating as James White and the Blacks spun off Defunkt as an independent act, thereby igniting the black rock movement that produced Living Colour. Heroin addiction kept James Chance from reaching a wider public, yet his jagged and arresting body of work continues to demonstrate that command of jazz technique need not produce lifeless rock music. Chance died on June 18, 2024, at the age of 71.
The original Contortions featured Chance, Pat Place on guitar, Jody Harris on guitar, Adele Bertei on keyboards, George Scott III on bass, and Don Christensen on drums. The band first appeared on record in 1978 with the compilation No New York, a landmark document of the city’s no wave activity. Their experimental marriage of punk, free jazz, and funk reached its most striking realization on the album Buy, released by the then-fashionable Ze label.
Following the Contortions’ breakup, three concert recordings preserved the force of their live performances. A later iteration operating as James White and the Blacks spun off Defunkt as an independent act, thereby igniting the black rock movement that produced Living Colour. Heroin addiction kept James Chance from reaching a wider public, yet his jagged and arresting body of work continues to demonstrate that command of jazz technique need not produce lifeless rock music. Chance died on June 18, 2024, at the age of 71.
Albums
