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James Chance, No Wave Icon and Saxophonist of the Contortions, Dies at 71
James Chance, saxophonist and singer of The Contortions, who helped start the No Wave movement in New York City, has died. He was 71.
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. With his roommate, the equally noise-friendly Lydia Lunch, he started Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. On the liner notes for a re-issue of “Buy,” Marc Masters wrote, “Led by the brash yelps and free-sax squawks of Chance, Contortions spit out fiercely rhythmic tunes charged by the wiry guitar lines of Jody Harris and the dizzying slide guitar of Pat Place…Opener ‘Designed to Kill’ shoots sparks of sound in all directions, while ‘Contort Yourself’ is a nihilistic dance number wherein Chance instructs listeners to twist into knots, physically and mentally.
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