“A legend: the freeform playing of Albert Ayler with the solid funk rhythm of James Brown, though filtered through a punk rock lens”

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. Chance differed from some of his No Wave compatriots by possessing (and demanding from his band) a certain level of musical skill and talent. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Chance moved to New York City in 1977. He quickly became active in both the free jazz and punk rock scenes. While Chance was professionally and romantically linked with No Wave musical luminary Lydia Lunch, the duo created seminal No Wave group Teenage Jesus & The Jerks; then after Chance left the group in 1978, Chance went on to form the Contortions and James White and the Blacks.
“His two albums out on 1979 on Ze Records set out to link together the bare threads of punk, funk and free jazz. Chance produced an electrifying sound that will subsequently give birth to a musical current from which today's young contenders will draw their plagiarized 'inspiration'. The music hasn't aged in any way and opened up a new standard: introducing Funk grooves, Free Jazz improvs and Disco efficiency, from which the British scene from Manchester will draw its full inspiration a few years later”. (forced exposure)
Frictions between Chance and band members led to a breakup of the Contortions in the fall of 1979. Aiming for a truer funk sound, Chance continued with a mix of black and white musicians and his bands went through numerous incarnations, touring and recording under the name James White and the Blacks until the mid 1980s. Subsequently Chance withdrew from public visibility for over a decade, before reappearing in the mid-1990s.

“James Chance was one of the many charismatic figures in the New York underground in the 1970s, producing a coruscating din with his band The Contortions, and significantly altering the musical landscape in the process” (Waysidemusic)

“Chance's ideology was built of a foundation of nihilism that came more from UK punk than New York's version, but Chance took his own chop directions from Ayler, Coltrane, and Sanders” (allaboutjazz.com)

"He be funk punk brother number one!" (Melody Maker UK)

"The Contortions shook the f***k out of raw funk!" (Chicago Reader)

"Essential no wave/drug-funk/skree Jazz" (Alternative Press)

"James Chance Et Les Contorsions Live 1.5.07.   
At The Barfly, Camden.
Yes indeed the laziest man in showbusiness is back in record time with his hot new French band Les Contorsions to blow us all away with his current European tour. (...) I was there for the Fuhrer of Funk himself Mr Jaaaames Chance! Well this time there was no intro from his brother David Just the band coming on and setting up before launching into a great set of superb intense Funky Jazz Punk. The new band live up to the task and the first big highlight for me was a great take on That Old Black Magic, that was indeed enough to make us know we were in the prescence of a Sax Maniac who knows exactly how to Melt Yourself down. By the time James told us we were about to hear the first ever live version of Stained Sheets he had already got the whole audience going, but then on slunk Judy Taylor to give us the most dirty delicious orgasm while writhing towards James who replied with some truly filthy sax and we were all in heaven. James then brought things down with a collosal version of King Heroin that was followed by a couple of new songs from the japanese album that was unavailable afterwards no matter what James claimed, still they did have Lost Chance and the incredible Soul Exorcism Redux. They closed the set with a totally twisted version of Contort Yourself that had Judy Taylor back onstage pulling James off the stage like you couldn't get him to leave it!! it was steamy and electric way to end his set. they came back for an encore of "I Hate myself" or something like that, that brought a great show to a storming close.Yes James Chance is back still and funking it up liker there's no tomorrow and if the rammed Barfly is anything to go by he is building his following once more, now to find that new album....
http://www.myspace.com/simonovitch

About the same London show: "James Chance is to the saxophone what Jerry Lee Lewis is to the piano. In fact, with his loosened neck-tie, lurching, flopping duck’s arse quiff, electrified moves and evangelical preacher’s approach to wooing a crowd, he could be Jerry Lee’s scummier Lower East Side-dwelling kid brother.
Always light years ahead of his time, back in the ‘70s Chance invented the ‘80s by melding punk and funk and dousing it with burst of free-jazz saxophone, Sun Ra-inspired head-fuck organ noise. And organic disco beats. When not attacking audience members – a common occurrence – with his militantly-arranged line-ups and ever-changing changing monikers (a stint in Lydia lunch’s Teenage Jesus & The Jerks was followed by James White & The Blacks, The Flaming Demonics, James Chance & The Sardonic Symphonics), he taught white punks to dance like James Brown and wrestled the saxophone back from incidental music on romantic comedies when the man kisses the woman against a background of the twinkling Manhattan skyline. He also made the saxophone sound like a weapon, and his juddering rhythms are directly responsible for the likes of Sonic Youth, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Talking Heads, Jon Spencer – not to mention The Rapture and pretty every much every undernourished member of the Timmy Mallett-dressing East London nerk fraternity who thinks a cowbell and a hi-hat is all you need to be a master of da fonk.
Close your eyes and tonight could be CBGBs in ’78, at that point when punk and new wave was furrowing its brow, cranking up the distortion, discovering John Coltrane and loft spaces and embarking on what would be dubbed No Wave; a deconstructionist approach to rock ‘n’ roll where melody was sacrificed for the DNA-shifting power of dissonance.
So, we’re treated to an hour-long workout of Chance’s trademark wailing saxophone, a rhythm section that’s taut and tight and casually turns on a sixpence at every available opportunity, waves of wah-wah guitar and, in the midst of it all, a 54-year-old casually skanking and jerking between keyboard and sax while singing, grunting, howling and finger-popping his way through a set of signature tunes like ‘Sax Maniac’, ‘Contort Yourself’ and ‘Stained Sheets’
“This one’s called ‘I Can’t Stand Myself’,” says Chance.
“But you’re cool as fuck!” shouts one rapt fan down the front.
No-one disagrees.
(Ben Myers - Drowned in Sound)

 « For those in the know, James Chance is the ‘Godfather of No-Wave’, and the inspiration behind punk funk. Tonight he plays with Les Contortions, not the NY version, but a French line up who deliver the goods on classic tracks from ‘Off White’ through to ‘Buy’ and ‘Sax Maniac’. (...) In reverence to James Brown, he creates a swampy version of King Heroin; the highlight of tonight’s set. And it beats Brown’s version hands down; the stripped down howls from the gut and minimalist blues are as relative to Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and The MakeUp as they are to the founder of funk. The water tight line up knit together a backing for Chance’s fluid Ornette Coleman inspired saxophone. (...) The music is as fresh today as it was in 1979. Chance hollers like a TV Evangelist or the offspring of Jerry Lee Lewis, when he dances, drops to the floor, throws himself down like a Lynch Rockabilly New York Doll, it becomes apparent that Chance is a serious one off. He’s up there with Elvis. For real. And the hair, quaffed, sprayed, framing his face that paints a past damaged by the underworld of East Village. This level of authentic rock & roll adds to the frantic atmosphere that Chance conjures through his sax. He looks the part. Sounds the part. And through tracks such as ‘Contort Yourself’, and ‘Can’t Stand Myself’ his influential approach to rhythm still casts a shadow on modern acts such as The Rapture, or even LCD. The factor that always set James Chance apart from his peers back in the day was that he could actually play. A renowned saxophonist in the States, he is an innovator whose schizophrenic screams of fire are as relevant to the punk scene as they are to obscure freestyle compositions. Chance’s confrontational persona (picking fights with audiences, all that jazz) is sadly absent tonight – and at bus pass age any hint of fisticuffs from the self consciously hip crowd fizzles out with a nice sit down at his Hammond organ. They wish they could be as wild as this Grandaddy. Complete with bouffant, No Wave licks and eardrum burning brass, Chance proves mightily that the devil does have all the best tunes. »
Adelle Stripe (Stool Pigeon)