Lee Jaffe
Artist. Reggae, roots
- Active
- 1973-present
Lee Jaffe is a New York artist, photographer, filmmaker and harmonica player who became one of Bob Marley's inner circle in 1973, played harmonica on Natty Dread, helped bring Peter Tosh to Columbia Records, and took the photograph on the cover of Legalize It.
He heard the first demos for Catch a Fire in a hotel room with Marley and Jim Capaldi, met Marley again weeks later on a chartered flight to Jamaica, and, when Marley introduced him to the band, signed on at once for the Wailers' first American tour, which he helped organize. He moved to Jamaica at Marley's invitation and lived there for six years, photographing the Wailers' recording sessions, shows and days off, and played harmonica on Marley's 1974 album Natty Dread.
In 1974 he joined Tosh's camp and helped him to the deal with Columbia that produced Legalize It (1976) and Equal Rights (1977). His photograph of Tosh in a ganja field in Bluefields, Westmoreland, became the cover of Legalize It; Jaffe recalled that Columbia's executives were at first "apprehensive about it."
In the 1980s he produced records for Barrington Levy and Joe Higgs. With Roger Steffens he wrote One Love: Life with Bob Marley and the Wailers (2003), and Rizzoli published a second book of his photographs, Hit Me with Music: Roots, Rock, Reggae, in 2024. He has toured with Stephen Marley, played harmonica on Lenny Kravitz's "Rosemary," and kept working as a visual artist and filmmaker.
Last updated October 21, 2026
Connections
- Joe Higgs (artist)
- Barrington Levy (artist)
- Bob Marley (collaborator)
- The Wailers (toured with)
- Peter Tosh (collaborator)
- Stephen Marley (toured with)
Notes
- Howard Campbell, "Legal Legacy: Tosh's Associate Keeps Memory Alive," Jamaica Observer, September 4, 2012, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2012/09/04/legal-legacy-toshs-associate-keeps-memory-alive/. Howard Campbell, "Legalize It Turns 40!," Jamaica Observer, July 30, 2016, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2016/07/30/legalize-it-turns-40.
- "Photographer Presents an Offbeat Glimpse of Reggae Legends," Times Colonist (Victoria, BC), accessed October 21, 2026, https://www.timescolonist.com/entertainment/photographer-presents-an-offbeat-glimpse-of-reggae-legends-4600504, which says he "signed on immediately." "One Love: Life with Bob Marley and the Wailers," book listing, Politics and Prose, accessed October 21, 2026, https://politics-prose.com/book/9780393051438, which says he met Marley in New York in 1973.
- Campbell, "Legal Legacy." Howard Campbell, "Hit Me with Music: Lee Jaffe Immortalises Marley in New Book," Jamaica Observer, November 18, 2024, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2024/11/18/hit-me-with-music, which calls him "a member of Bob Marley's inner circle."
- Campbell, "Legal Legacy." Campbell, "Legalize It Turns 40!"
- Campbell, "Hit Me with Music." "One Love." "Photographer Presents an Offbeat Glimpse," on Kravitz and his later art.
