Early life

Born in the Bronx to a Jewish family, Jaffe grew up in New York City. Having fulfilled his high school requirements at the age of sixteen, Jaffe left New York to attend Penn State University, where he studied American history and literature, art history, and modern philosophy.

Early films and conceptual art

Jaffe left Penn State at the age of 19, returned briefly to New York where he played harmonica and guitar in various bands, and then picked up suddenly and moved to Brazil. Through the music scene there he was introduced into a circle of friends making experimental films. There he directed such films as the 16 mm film “Nine Ways of Dying”, created in the remote mountains of Brazil.
Jaffe became close to the influential Brazilian filmmaker Neville d’Almeida and the artist Hélio Oiticica

Hélio Oiticica

Hélio Oiticica was a Brazilian visual artist, best known for his participation in the Neo-Concrete group, for his innovative use of color, and for what he later termed "environmental art", which included Parangolés and Penetrables, like the famous Tropicália.- Early work :Oiticica's early works,...

, with whom he collaborated in the April 1970 exhibition “From Body to Earth” in Belo Horizonte.

When Jaffe returned in New York in 1971, he continued making films, such as “Impact”, with the conceptual artist Vito Acconci

Vito Acconci

Vito Hannibal Acconci is a Bronx, New York-born, Brooklyn-based designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist.-Education:...

, and "Brooklyn Bridge", with Gordon Matta-Clark

Gordon Matta-Clark

Gordon Matta-Clark was an American artist best known for his site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He is famous for his "building cuts," a series of works in abandoned buildings in which he variously removed sections of floors, ceilings, and walls.-Life and work:Both of Gordon Matta-Clark's...

. In 1971 he also participated in the landmark conceptual exhibition “Projects: Pier 18” for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, curated by Willoughby Sharp

Willoughby Sharp

Willoughby Sharp was an internationally known artist, independent curator, independent publisher, gallerist, teacher, author, and telecom activist. In 1968, Sharp co-founded Avalanche magazine with writer/filmmaker Liza Béar...

.

Music career and sojourn in Jamaica

In 1972, while working with Island Records, he met Bob Marley in a hotel room in New York. He followed Marley back to Jamaica on what was originally a two-week vacation, but ended up staying for the next five years. Jaffe lived with Marley, managing the Wailers, playing harmonica on the album Natty Dread, and organizing their North American tour. In Jamaica, Jaffe also met Peter Tosh

Peter Tosh

Peter Tosh, born Winston Hubert McIntosh , was a Jamaican reggae musician who was a core member of the band The Wailers , and who afterward had a successful solo career as well as being a promoter of Rastafari.Peter Tosh was born in Grange Hill, Jamaica, an illegitimate child to a mother too young...

, and he produced his album Legalize It and shot the iconic cover in 1977.

Turn to Painting

Jaffe moved back to New York in 1977, while still working with Peter Tosh.
In 1983 Jaffe turned to painting. His works have been characterized as “large scale, multi-media historical assemblage.” Through his work, he has explored various themes of marginalization in American history, such as “the exploitation of the black performer in America, the cruelty of the fur industry, the relationship of the Native American to his environment, the ambiguity of America's traitors.”

Jaffe has exhibited at major museums worldwide, including Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; and the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England.

Recent work

In the mid-80s, he produced records for reggae pioneer Joe Higgs

Joe Higgs

Joe Higgs was a reggae musician from Jamaica. In the late 1950s and 1960s he was part of the duo Higgs and Wilson together with Roy Wilson...

, Grammy-nominated The Wailing Souls

The Wailing Souls

The Wailing Souls are a Jamaican reggae vocal group still recording and performing live, whose origins date back to the 1960s.-Career:They have recorded with many top Jamaican record producers including Coxsone Dodd of Studio One, Lloyd "King Jammy" James, Henry "Junjo" Lawes, Delroy Wilson and...

, and dancehall innovator Barrington Levy

Barrington Levy

Barrington Levy is a reggae and dancehall artist from Jamaica.-Career:In 1976, Levy formed a band with his cousin, Everton Dacres, called the Mighty Multitude; the pair released "My Black Girl" in 1977...

.

In 2003, he wrote ONE LOVE: Life with Bob Marley and the Wailers, published by W.W. Norton and Sons.

He lives today in Los Angeles, where he continues to produce films and create his large-scale painting and assemblage.
Film=
1969-72

Mask Whisper

Parallel Fears (with Miguel Rio Branco)

Impact (with Vito Acconci)

Nine Ways of Dying

Brooklyn Bridge (with Gordon Matta-Clark)

Le Chien (Starring Rita Renior and Elizabeth Weiner)

The Life and Times of Luis Gonzaga



2009

Flow: for the love of water (executive producer)

BrownPunk (the movie) directed by Tricky. Starring Tricky, Elliot Gould and Cedella Marley. In production (producer)

Discography=
1977 Peter Tosh, Legalize it

1986 Joe Higgs, Family

1988 Joe Higgs, Blackman Know Yourself

1991 Wailing Souls, All Over The World

1994 Morgan Heritage, Miracle

1994 Barrington Levy, Barrington

1999 Barrington Levy, Living Dangerously

Books=
2003 ONE LOVE, Life with Bob Marley and the Wailers by Lee Jaffe, Roger Steffens Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company; 1st edition (April 22, 2003)

1992 Cordially Yours, Lee Jaffe by Rainer Crone and David Moos. Publisher: Moderna Museet (1992)
External links=
www.leejaffe.com

www.stage35.com/leejaffewp/