Almost Black: James White and the Blacks

Posted by: zac | From: May 21, 2004

In 1979, a New York-based saxophonist named James Sigfried released two records on the Ze record label under two different personas--disposing of his surname and supplanting it once with "Chance," and again with "White." One of these records would go on to be touted through much of the punk/noise underground of the 'oughts (see: erase errata, ex models, numbers, die monitor bats, ad infinitum), with the other seemingly better left forgotten.

A seminal figure in the original "No Wave" scene (which fused punk with avant-and free- jazz, and noise), James Chance was a founding member of two of New York's premiere art bands of the late '70s: Lydia Lunch's Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and the Contortions. It was with the latter band that Chance released Buy, a record that (along with the No New York compilation) came to define the short-lived movement. Mixing disco-based rhythms with the discordance of free jazz and the aggression and confrontational presence of punk, the album would go on to be a hugely influential, and (along with Public Image Limited's Metal Box record) can be blamed for a great many of the "dance punk" bands currently flooding the underground. Especially the ones with saxophonists.

The same year that Buy was released however, Chance (and most of his Contortions) reconvened to record under a different pretense altogether: the Contortions were to become a soul band. Changing his name to James White (in reference to the other soul James), the band became James White and the Blacks, a sort of soul "parody" that meshed funk, free-jazz and soul posturing all within the envelope of crystal-clean disco production. Off White is a clever, frustrating, and hilarious listen--a post-modern experiment whose commitment feels a lot more earnest than their cover of Irving Berlin's "(Tropical) Heatwave" might suggest.

Though the Contortions' legacy has never really disappeared over the years, the recent No Wave resurgence has spawned a new-found interest in the rest of the Chance/White discography, as witnessed in the recent Tiger Style retrospective Irresistible Impulse, which thankfully repackages the bulk of his post-Contortions work (including two James White solo albums I am still totally unfamiliar with). Though the Contortions' output is arguably the best of Chance/White's career, the James White and the Blacks record is in itself not without a great deal of merit.

Besides, any No Wave band with enough foresight to cover Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" THE YEAR THAT IT WAS RELEASED has got to be the Greatest Band Of All Time.

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