R.I.P. James Chance

"James Chance, the singer, saxophonist, bandleader and composer who in the late 1970s emerged from New York’s 'No Wave' scene to embody the genre known as 'punk funk,' died today at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center in New York. His death was announced by his brother David Siegfried of Chicago, who did not specify a cause of death but noted that the musician’s health had been in decline for several years. His final live performance is believed to have taken place in March 2019 in Utrecht, The Netherlands."

[www.yahoo.com]

Crap. I honestly knew this was going to happen when he popped up randomly on Spotify yesterday, marking the first time I'd listened to him in years. It's like when I downloaded "Super Freak" from Limewire and hours later, Rick James was dead.

If I suddenly think of a musician or actor I like but haven't given much thought to for the previous half decade or so and either listen to them or look up what they've been doing recently, that sucker will be in the ground within a fortnight. It's a terrible power to wield.

Ha, well don’t feel bad breno- poor ol’ James Chance/White/Black had an on-line fundraiser a year or so ago due to his health problems, so don’t think it’s your fault. Not a super surprising death, I’m sorry to say.

Fun music, and not really having anything to do with the other artists on “No New York.” More like the punk-funk of Black Randy (who accused Chance of stealing his act), Gang of Four, Minutemen, etc, tho with an outrageous sense of humor all his own.

A style that devolved into Red Hot Chili Peppers (not a big fan, but they had a moment there in the early ‘90s, and Flea’s a swell guy, I’ve seen him play with some greats), then Rage Against The Machine, then the increasingly awful nu-metal rap-funk of the ‘90s…Oi. I know some rate Primus pretty high, but they always irritated me. Any bastard sons of James Chance out there I should
know about, or did limp bands like Limp Bizkit kill off the genre?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2024 12:44AM by MrFab.

In a more positive lineage, there were also British bands like Blurt and the Fire Engines, or even the Pop Group, mixing jazz, funk and punk.

A commenter on Simon Reynolds' blog a few months back called Chance "the funky Richard Hell."

I don't really see nu metal even as a distant descendant of the Contortions. There are some pretty huge style and regional differences. By the time NO NEW YORK came out, Chance had become a cool New York artist working with Brian Eno and putting an ironic spin on the idea of the white hipster copying jazz musicians, while Slipknot and Limp Bizkit came from Florida or Iowa and never tried to impress anyone beyond their base of teenage boys or showed a sense of humor that'd please anyone outside it. (Also, Chance only made one studio album in his most aggressive style.) Sure, they may have been influenced by bands who were influenced by bands who were influenced by the Contortions, but that's like saying Avril Lavigne owed something to the Stooges.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2024 01:25AM by steevee.

On the money, Steevee. Bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit and their foul ilk blended the most lowbrow elements of rap and metal -- and it was easy to tell that they selected those factors pretty deliberately. They seemed designed to appeal to teenage white boys who think they're cool when they address their fellow white boys with the n-word.

Then again, Bizkit's latest album is entitled Still Sucks, so perhaps they've developed a worthwhile sense of humor.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2024 03:29PM by Delvin.

RHCP never really did anything for me, but I think there's an excellent "best of" that could be distilled from RATM's three albums of original material - that's really all I kept from them in my library, but I do play it once in a while.

There probably wasn't much connection from James Chance to Limp Bizkit. I just meant that punk-funk as a genre started off great, and ended up...not so great. A mid-'90s kid would have had a very different idea of punk-funk than someone who remembers the late-'70s/early '80s era, so just wondering if there's anything good in that genre in recent years (decades?)

I’m tempted to say whatever promise that lineage had has been absorbed into hip hop, though it also branched out into some very popular rap rock acts that never did anything for me either.

When I picked up the ‘buy the contortions’ and ‘off white’ lp’s, I thought I was the coolest kid in my loser podunk hometown.

I simply CANNOT get from point a to point b…I’ve never considered Chance a precursor to the nu metal acts.

Certainly he was in the same NYC stew that other ZE label acts were in, kid creole, tom Tom club, bush tetras, defunkt, etc etc

Don’t feel bad breno, I similarly killed off Toots a few years back when I unwittingly bought a used copy of ‘funky Kingston’ the freaking day he died.

OTOH, 2000s dance-punk was pretty heavily inspired by the Contortions (and their ZE labelmates).

Agree Steevee…. “House of jealous lovers” was practically an homage