About James Chance
James Siegfried (April 20, 1953 – June 18, 2024; known professionally as James Chance, originally as James White) was an American saxophonist, keyboard player, and singer. A key figure in no wave, he played a combination of improvisational jazz-like music and punk in the New York music scene from the late 1970s on, 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, James Chance and Terminal City, and James Chance and Les Contortions. Chance briefly relocated to Paris, returning to New York City in 1983 to record the album James White Presents The Flaming Demonics. While Chance shared an apartment with No Wave musical luminary Lydia Lunch, the duo created seminal No Wave group Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, which Chance soon left.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.