James Chance
Encyclopedia
James Chance, also known as James White (born 20 April 1953 as James Siegfried in Milwaukee, Wisconsin), is an American
saxophonist, songwriter and singer.
A key figure in No Wave
, Chance has been playing a combination of improvisational jazz
-like music and punk
in the New York
music scene since the late 1970s, in such bands as Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, James Chance and the Contortions
, James White and the Blacks (as he appeared in the film Downtown 81
), The Flaming Demonics, James Chance & the Sardonic Symphonics, and James Chance and Terminal City.
Chance differed from some of his No Wave compatriots by possessing (and demanding from his band) a certain level of musical skill and talent. His music can be described as combining the freeform playing of Ornette Coleman
with the solid funk
rhythm of James Brown, though filtered through a punk rock lens.
, Chance attended Michigan State University
, then the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music
in Milwaukee, dropped out and moved to New York City
in 1976. He quickly became active in both the free jazz
and no wave
punk rock scenes.His first band in New York in 1976 was an instrumental quartet with violin, drums and bass called Flaming Youth. After studying for a short time under David Murray, Chance formed The Contortions, who fused jazz improvisation and funk rhythms, with live shows often ending in violence when Chance would confront audience members. The Contortions reached a wider audience with their contribution to the Brian Eno
-compiled No New York
collection of No Wave acts.
While Chance was professionally and romantically linked with No Wave musical luminary Lydia Lunch
, the duo created seminal No Wave group Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, whom Chance soon left.
Chance was noted for engaging in physical confrontations, from pushing contests to fisticuffs, with his New York City audience, including rock critic Robert Christgau
. At first this was just an attempt to engage the passive New York audience, but this practice is reported to have somewhat diminished after audiences came to expect the physical confrontations.
In 1979, Chance collaborated with Arto Lindsay
, Bradley Field, and George Scott on the soundtrack to Diego Cortez's film Grutzi Elvis.
Frictions between Chance and band members eventually led to a breakup of the Contortions in the fall of 1979. The Contortions only album, Buy was released in late 1979, after which Chance moved on to a new project with James White and the Blacks, releasing albums in 1980 (Off-White, featuring Lydia Lunch under the pseudonym Stella Rico) and 1982 (Sax Maniac). Chance's stage and musical persona were finalized by romantic partner and agent Anya Phillips, who died of cancer in 1981. Sax Maniac was dedicated to Philips. The group released one more album, Melt Yourself Down, a very limited Japan
ese release.
The first version of the Blacks was set up by Joseph Bowie
. Shortly after, Defunkt
emerged out of the Blacks. In 1982 Chance toured with his brother David "Tremor" Siegfried and his band David and the Happenings from Carbondale, Illinois, playing Chicago, their hometown Milwaukee, and much of the Midwest.
Chance relocated to Paris
, returning to New York City in 1983 to record the album James White Presents The Flaming Demonics.
In 1987, he contributed saxophone to The False Prophets' Implosion album.
In 2001, Chance reunited with original Contortions members Jody Harris
(guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar) and Don Christensen (drums) for a few limited engagements. Original keyboard player Adele Bertei appeared briefly, but bass player George Scott had died of an accidental drug overdose in 1980 and his slot was filled by Eric Sanko. The reunited group has played twice at the All Tomorrow's Parties
music festival, and, in 2008, at the PS1 Warm Up series. Chance has also recorded with Blondie
since coming out of his semi-retirement. Tiger Style records released the 4-CD box set retrospective "Irresistible Impulse" to critical acclaim in 2003.
In addition to limited engagements with the original Contortions, Chance occasionally performs and records with the Chicago band Watchers. In Europe he performs with James Chance & Les Contorsions, French musicians who have been his backing band since 2006. They played a 15 show Europe tour in April and May 2007 and were back in Europe in October 2007.
In 2009 Chance has made occasional appearances playing keyboards in NYC with a trio, with the material restricted to close readings of jazz standards.
Chance appears on the video release James Chance - Chance of A Lifetime: Live in Chicago 2003 backed by the Chicago band Watchers.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
saxophonist, songwriter and singer.
A key figure in No Wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
, Chance has been playing a combination of improvisational jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
-like music and punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
in the New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
music scene since the late 1970s, in such bands as Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, James Chance and the Contortions
James Chance and the Contortions
James Chance and the Contortions, led by saxophonist and vocalist James Chance, were one of the original punk jazz groups of the New York No Wave music scene. Their first recording, credited solely as Contortions, was on the 1978 compilation, No New York, produced by Brain Eno...
, James White and the Blacks (as he appeared in the film Downtown 81
Downtown 81
Downtown 81 is a film that was shot in 1980-1981.This film, directed by Edo Bertoglio, written and produced by Glenn O'Brien with post-production in 1999-2000 by Maripol, is a rare real-life snapshot of ultra-hip subculture of post-punk era Manhattan...
), The Flaming Demonics, James Chance & the Sardonic Symphonics, and James Chance and Terminal City.
Chance differed from some of his No Wave compatriots by possessing (and demanding from his band) a certain level of musical skill and talent. His music can be described as combining the freeform playing of Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
with the solid funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
rhythm of James Brown, though filtered through a punk rock lens.
Biography
Born and raised in Milwaukee and Brookfield, WisconsinBrookfield, Wisconsin
Brookfield is a city located in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. It had a population of 37,920 in the 2010 census. Brookfield is the second largest city in Waukesha County, and the leading commercial suburb of Milwaukee. The City of Brookfield was formed in 1954 from the Town of...
, Chance attended Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
, then the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music
Wisconsin Conservatory of Music
The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music is an independent music school located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The conservatory teaches many types of music, including classical, jazz, rock, folk, and blues...
in Milwaukee, dropped out and moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1976. He quickly became active in both the free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
and no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
punk rock scenes.His first band in New York in 1976 was an instrumental quartet with violin, drums and bass called Flaming Youth. After studying for a short time under David Murray, Chance formed The Contortions, who fused jazz improvisation and funk rhythms, with live shows often ending in violence when Chance would confront audience members. The Contortions reached a wider audience with their contribution to the Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
-compiled No New York
No New York
No New York is a compilation album released in 1978 by Antilles Records under the curation of producer Brian Eno. Although it only contained songs by four different artists, it is considered by many to be the definitive single album documenting New York City's late-1970s No Wave...
collection of No Wave acts.
While Chance was professionally and romantically linked with No Wave musical luminary Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
, the duo created seminal No Wave group Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, whom Chance soon left.
Chance was noted for engaging in physical confrontations, from pushing contests to fisticuffs, with his New York City audience, including rock critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
. At first this was just an attempt to engage the passive New York audience, but this practice is reported to have somewhat diminished after audiences came to expect the physical confrontations.
Arto Lindsay
Arthur Morgan Lindsay is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He is a 1974 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida....
, Bradley Field, and George Scott on the soundtrack to Diego Cortez's film Grutzi Elvis.
Frictions between Chance and band members eventually led to a breakup of the Contortions in the fall of 1979. The Contortions only album, Buy was released in late 1979, after which Chance moved on to a new project with James White and the Blacks, releasing albums in 1980 (Off-White, featuring Lydia Lunch under the pseudonym Stella Rico) and 1982 (Sax Maniac). Chance's stage and musical persona were finalized by romantic partner and agent Anya Phillips, who died of cancer in 1981. Sax Maniac was dedicated to Philips. The group released one more album, Melt Yourself Down, a very limited Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese release.
The first version of the Blacks was set up by Joseph Bowie
Joseph Bowie
Joseph Bowie is an American bandleader, trombonist, and founder of the seminal jazz fusion band, Defunkt. The group has been blending jazz with funk and punk music for more than three consecutive decades....
. Shortly after, Defunkt
Defunkt
Defunkt is a musical group founded by trombonist/singer Joseph Bowie 1978 in New York, United States, and still active. Their music touches on elements of punk rock, funk and jazz....
emerged out of the Blacks. In 1982 Chance toured with his brother David "Tremor" Siegfried and his band David and the Happenings from Carbondale, Illinois, playing Chicago, their hometown Milwaukee, and much of the Midwest.
Chance relocated to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, returning to New York City in 1983 to record the album James White Presents The Flaming Demonics.
In 1987, he contributed saxophone to The False Prophets' Implosion album.
In 2001, Chance reunited with original Contortions members Jody Harris
Jody Harris
Jody Harris is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer who was born in Kansas and became a central figure in the seminal No Wave scene in New York City in the 1970s.-Career history:...
(guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar) and Don Christensen (drums) for a few limited engagements. Original keyboard player Adele Bertei appeared briefly, but bass player George Scott had died of an accidental drug overdose in 1980 and his slot was filled by Eric Sanko. The reunited group has played twice at the All Tomorrow's Parties
All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival)
All Tomorrow's Parties is a music festival which takes place at Camber Sands holiday camp in East Sussex and Butlin's holiday camp in Minehead, Somerset, England....
music festival, and, in 2008, at the PS1 Warm Up series. Chance has also recorded with Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
since coming out of his semi-retirement. Tiger Style records released the 4-CD box set retrospective "Irresistible Impulse" to critical acclaim in 2003.
In addition to limited engagements with the original Contortions, Chance occasionally performs and records with the Chicago band Watchers. In Europe he performs with James Chance & Les Contorsions, French musicians who have been his backing band since 2006. They played a 15 show Europe tour in April and May 2007 and were back in Europe in October 2007.
In 2009 Chance has made occasional appearances playing keyboards in NYC with a trio, with the material restricted to close readings of jazz standards.
Chance appears on the video release James Chance - Chance of A Lifetime: Live in Chicago 2003 backed by the Chicago band Watchers.
Albums
- BuyBuy (album)Buy is a 1979 album by James Chance and the Contortions released under the name Contortions. Buy was Contortions' debut album, originally released by the indie label ZE, while at the same time the album Off White under the alias of James White, was also released.-Track listing:All tracks by James...
(ZE-Arista 1979) (The Contortions) - Theme from Grutzi Elvis (EP ZE 1979)
- Off WhiteOff WhiteOff White is a 1979 No Wave album by James White, also known as James Chance.-Side one:# "Contort Yourself" – 6:15 # "Stained Sheets" – 5:51# " Heat Wave" – 3:55...
(ZE-Buddah 1979) (James White & The Blacks) - Second Chance (ZE-PVC 1980)
- Live aux Bains Douches (Fr. Invisible 1980) (The Contortions)
- Live in New York (cassette tape ROIRROIRROIR , or Reach Out International Records, is a New York City-based record label founded in 1979 by Neil Cooper.ROIR was founded the same year that the Sony Walkman launched, and initially, the label exclusively distributed its releases in cassette format...
1981) (The Contortions) - Sax ManiacSax ManiacSax Maniac is a 1982 album by New York jazz-punk band James White and The Blacks.-Track listing:All tracks composed by James Chance; except where indicated# "Disco Jaded"# "Irresistible Impulse"# "Money to Burn"# "Sax Machine"# "Sax Maniac"...
(Animal 1982) (James White & The Blacks) - James White Presents The Flaming Demonics (ZE-Island 1983)
- Melt Yourself Down (Selfish Records Japan 1986)
- Soul Exorcism (tape ROIR 1991) (The Contortions)
- Lost Chance (ROIR 1995)
- Molotov Cocktail Lounge (Enemy Records / Zebralution 1996)
- White Cannibal (ROIR 2000)
- Christmas with Satan (single Tiger Style 2002)
- Irresistible Impulse (retrospective Tiger Style 2003)
- Sax Education (2004)
- James Chance & Terminal City - Get Down and Dirty! (Wind bell 4 2005)
- Pre-Teenage Jesus, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks (EP ZE 1978)
- James Chance & Terminal City - The Fix is in (decade 01 2010)
- Twist Your Soul - The Definitive Collection 2xCD (History Records 2010)
Appears On
- No New YorkNo New YorkNo New York is a compilation album released in 1978 by Antilles Records under the curation of producer Brian Eno. Although it only contained songs by four different artists, it is considered by many to be the definitive single album documenting New York City's late-1970s No Wave...
(compilation Antilles 1978) (with The Contortions) - No Exit (Blondie album)No Exit (Blondie album)No Exit is the seventh studio album by the US rock/new wave group Blondie. It was released in February 1999 and marked the first time the band recorded or performed together since 1982, when they released their previous studio album The Hunter....
, BlondieBlondie (band)Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
guest artist, alto sax (Beyond Records 1999) - Downtown 81Downtown 81Downtown 81 is a film that was shot in 1980-1981.This film, directed by Edo Bertoglio, written and produced by Glenn O'Brien with post-production in 1999-2000 by Maripol, is a rare real-life snapshot of ultra-hip subculture of post-punk era Manhattan...
(1981) - Medium Cool (1991), Chet BakerChet BakerChesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...
tribute with Alex ChiltonAlex ChiltonWilliam Alexander "Alex" Chilton was an American songwriter, guitarist, singer and producer, best known as the lead singer of the Box Tops and Big Star...
, Adele Bertei, and Angel Torsen - Somewhere in the City (1998)
- James Chance - Chance of A Lifetime: Live in Chicago 2003 (RUNT 2005)
- TV Party (2005)
- Rabble Watchers (guest artist) (Gern Blandsten 2006)
- Vampire Driver Watchers (guest artist) (Gern Blandsten 2006)
- Red Hot Chili Peppers Jukebox "Contort Yourself (Original Version)" (listed as influential artist) (Mojo Magazine Label Compilation 2004)
- Acoustic LadylandAcoustic LadylandAcoustic Ladyland are a London based jazz/punk band consisting of Pete Wareham on vocals, tenor and baritone saxophone, Seb Rochford on drums, Chris Sharkey on Guitar and Ruth Goller on bass guitar....
- Skinny GrinSkinny GrinSkinny Grin is a 2006 album by Acoustic Ladyland, featuring the singles "Salt Water" and "Cuts & Lies". It was recorded at Eastcote Studios in London, engineered by Philip Bagenal and Al O'Connell...
(2006)