James Chance, the singer-saxophonist of the Contortions and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, who aided commence the No Wave scene in the late 1970s, has died. He was 71.

News of Chance’s passing was confirmed by his brother, David Siegfried, and shared by implies of the late punk-funk artists’s Facebook web page on Tuesday (June 18).

“His dying was declared by his brother David Siegfried of Chicago, who did not specify a bring about of dying but mentioned that the musician’s well being experienced been in drop for various decades,” the prolonged publish reads. “His final stay functionality is thought to have taken place in March 2019 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.”

Prospect, who was regarded for mixing jazz, punk and funk, died June 18 at Terence Cardinal Cooke Wellness Care Center in New York, in accordance to the statement.

Born James Alan Siegfried in Milwaukee, Possibility commenced actively playing piano even although attending a Catholic elementary college and later on took up the alto saxophone in his late teenage years. Through his education and studying at Michigan Condition University and Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Conservatory of Audio, he fashioned the jazz band James Siegfried Quintet and the Stooges-impacted Dying.

In 1975, Probability moved to New York, exactly where he officially started utilizing his stage title, and a yr later on formed the influential group Teenage Jesus and the Jerks with singer Lydia Lunch. In 1977, instantly following studying with saxophonist David Murray, he shaped the initially edition of the Contortions. The group made its debut album, Obtain, in 1979. Chance was identified for his confrontational stage presence and regarded to commence fights with buyers of the crowd.

The Contortions broke up in 1979 and Possibility reunited with some associates of the band in 2003 for a collection of demonstrates, which contain All Tomorrow’s Events in Los Angeles. They later toured alongside one particular an additional in the pursuing years. Chance also carried out with the Chicago band Watchers.

He is survived by his mom, Jean Siegfried brother, David Siegfried and sisters, Jill Siegfried and Mary (Randy) Koehler.