Bernard Edwards; Co-Founder of Disco Band Chic

Bernard Edwards, record producer, composer and bassist who organized the popular disco band Chic, has died in Tokyo at age 43.

Edwards, who was in Japan to perform at the Tokyo Super Producers Concert, was found dead in his hotel room Thursday by his collaborator, Nile Rodgers. Edwards had complained of not feeling well but had no history of serious illness, and the cause of death is undetermined.

The New York duo, who began playing with various rock and popular bands in small East Coast clubs, formed Chic and burst into national consciousness in 1977 with their hit record “Dance, Dance, Dance.” Edwards and Rodgers went on to produce albums by Diana Ross, the Rod Stewart album “Out of Order” and such Sister Sledge hits as “We Are Family” and “Love Somebody Today.”

Chic’s distinctive, widely imitated sound was characterized by Times’ music writer Don Snowden as “a spare, choppy brand of sophisticated funk spiced with strings and an occasional jazz flourish.”

Among their other hits were “Everybody Dance,” “Le Freak” and “Good Times.” After they reunited in the early 1990s, the duo released the album “Chic-ism.”

“I think ‘Good Times’ is the song we’re remembered for,” Edwards told The Times in 1992. “We were a commercial band, and unfortunately a lot of people never took the time to get into the band or to listen to the rest of the albums.”

“We were part of the ‘disco sucks’ era and it was very hard to deal with that,” he said. “A lot of the admiration we got was after the fact, and it was from British or rock bands who came looking for us as musicians.”