No-Wave icon James Chance dies at 71

James Chance, the No Wave icon who was the saxophonist and singer of the Contortions and Teenage Jesus And The Jerks, has died. He died in New York, his brother David Siegfried announced. He was 71 years old.

Although the cause of death is not yet known, the health of the musician – born James Siegfried – has been deteriorating in recent years. Siegfried and his long-time partner Judy Taylor set up a GoFundMe campaign in 2020 for “personal health issues and the COVID situation.” Taylor died shortly after and Siegfried was hospitalized last year.

Siegfried was born in Milwaukee in 1953. He began playing piano at his Catholic elementary school and learned to play the saxophone at 18. He moved to New York in 1975 and began using the name James Chance. He joined Teenage Jesus And The Jerks after meeting Lydia Lunch at CBGB, then formed the Contortions in 1977. They became a polymath of the downtown New York no wave scene, and Siegfried was known for his confrontational performances, during which he would pick fights with audience members, including rock critic Robert Christgau.

The Contortions released Buy in 1979 and were renamed James White And The Blacks for their 1980 follow-up. Cream coloredwhich featured Lunch and Robert Quine, and the band’s performance at Glenn O’Brien’s City Center 81. Another line-up of the band later shared the LPs Saxophone fanatic And Melt yourself. Contortions have reunited several times since their split, and Chance has appeared on albums by artists such as Debbie Harry, the False Prophets, and Kirin J. Callinan. His last performance was in March 2019 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Pat Place, the original Contortions member who later formed the Bush Tetras, said: “I am so sad to hear of James’ passing. Working with him in the early days of the Contortions was a rollercoaster of fun, creativity and madness. His loss is a great loss to the inner city community and the music world.”