Formed by James Siegfried (aka James Chance) in the late '70s, the Contortions were a collision of punk and harmolodic jazz that, along with Bill Laswell's Material and James Blood Ulmer, constituted New York's no wave scene. Chance's awareness of cutting-edge jazz -- and a defiantly original saxophone style, an unholy combination of Captain Beefheart and Maceo Parker -- injected his music with a brittle energy that was unmatched. The Contortions -- comprising Chance, Pat Place (guitar), Jody Harris (guitar), Adele Bertei (keyboards), George Scott III (bass), and Don Christensen (drums) -- debuted in 1978 on No New York, a seminal sampler chronicling the city's no wave movement. The band's experimental fusion of punk, free jazz, and funk was exemplified on the startling Buy, issued on the then-fashionable Ze label. Three live sets, released following the Contortions' demise, chronicled their memorable in-concert power. A later version of the band, James White and the Blacks, fostered Defunkt as a separate entity, kick-starting the black rock movement that begat Living Colour. Heroin problems prevented James Chance from reaching a large audience, but his spiky, beautiful music remains as a testament that jazz chops do not necessarily make for tedious rock music. Chance died on June 18, 2024, at the age of 71.