Remembering James Chance

by

In the mid-‘70s, James Chance studied at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music’s jazz program but later disparaged the instruction he received. It was too conservative, yet he played alongside such prestigious graduates as Brian Lynch. Born in Brookfield as James Siegfried, he was a fan of a local pre-punk band modeled after the Stooges, Death, an act with few followers. “He started out moving equipment for Death. His friends called him Jim. He learned to play the sax and we featured him on a few songs. We billed him as Doctor Sax. He did solos only,” says Death’s drummer Jim Richardson. “He moved into the band house on Cramer Street (1973) and he had the room next to me. He would play the saxophone endlessly. He played very free. He listened to a lot of Charlie Parker. I thought when he got better, he would start to sound like that. That never happened,” Richardson continues.

Chance had been ill for several years. He died in New York City on June 18. He was 71.

His friend Liz Richard remembers that he played only “intermittently” at Death’s gigs but “was always there dancing.”

Like many disaffected Heartlanders, Siegfried lit out for Manhattan. There, in 1975, the saxophonist reinvented himself as James Chance and found a scene that accepted him at CBGB in the Bowery. Before long, he placed himself at the center of no wave, punk rock’s noisiest, most discordant offshoot.

His early NYC days found him partnering with Lydia Lunch in a band called Teenage Jesus and studying under David Murray, whose concept was to bring free jazz to a wider audience through funky rhythms and African roots. In 1977 he formed his signal band, The Contortions, heard on the Brian Eno-produced No New York compilation and their 1979 debut LP, Buy the Contortions, an angry distillation of punk energy and funk beats splattered with sonic debris from his saxophone. Under the name James White and the Blacks, he released an album of mutant disco during that same year, Off White.

His confrontational public style was already evident before he left Milwaukee. “We went to the Stone Toad one time and Ruby Starr was playing,” Richardson recalls.  “He positioned himself directly in front of her and danced until she called the bouncers and had him kicked out.”

Since the mid-1980s, Chance has performed and recorded sporadically, sometimes with original members of the Contortions, and sometimes, in Europe, as James Chance and Les Contortions. Chance performed at least twice in Milwaukee, at the Starship and Shank Hall. Richard recalled that for many years, Chance and his girlfriend, Judy Taylor, visited at Christmas and stayed at the Siegfried family home in Brookfield.

“I think the last time I saw him was when he was back in Milwaukee visiting family and a bunch of us had dinner in West Bend,” Richadson says. “I remember he had put on a lot of weight and didn’t look so good.

“I’ve been following his situation on his brother David’s Go Fund Me page. He has had a rough couple of years, and it seemed like he had nothing to show for all of his past musical endeavors.

Too bad you don’t get paid for the amount of ink you get in the press. Then he could have retired comfortably instead of ending up pretty much broke. We had some good times back in the ‘70s!”