James Chance and the Contortions

James Chance and the Contortions was an American band formed in 1977 and active through 1980, led by saxophonist and vocalist James Chance. Emerging from New York's late 1970s No Wave scene, they merged punk urgency, free jazz dissonance, and funk-derived rhythms into terse, angular songs driven by jagged sax lines, sharp keyboard or guitar stabs, and tight, propulsive rhythms. Their confrontational, high-energy performances and abrasive sound are closely associated with the no wave aesthetic of that period.