On February 20, 2023, Charles James Jaffe left Rochester, NY (and Earth) after a long, difficult struggle with Parkinson’s disease.
He is survived by his wife, Martha Heller; his sisters, Phyllis Spool, Judith Pearl, and Debi McCarthy; nieces and nephews; Martha’s children Susan Schepp and her husband, Christopher, Julia Payne-Lewis and her wife, Donna Payne, and Robert Heller; Martha’s grandchildren Celeste Wyman and her husband, Emmett, Skylar Lewis, and Gemma Deissler. He is predeceased by Martha’s son, David Heller, and way too many friends to list here.
Known to many simply as Jaffe, he moved to Rochester from Boston around 1990 to attend Chris and Sue’s wedding, and eventually live with his “Sweetie Pie,” Martha Heller, whom he had first met in 1969 at the commune, Bryn Athyn, in Vermont. After living together for decades, Martha and Jaffe were married in October, 2019, at the Little Theater Cafe.
Jaffe was born on June 26, 1947, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the first child to Sylvia and Theodore Jaffe. His younger sisters fondly remember his athleticism as basketball team captain, his active teenage romantic life, and his regular participation in their local Jewish temple youth group.
He began playing piano as a child and continued into formal study in playing and tuning at Berklee School of Music and Harvard. He worked professionally tuning and refurbishing pianos in Boston and played both solo and with fine musical groups across the country before finding his home in Rochester.
Known for his unique style blending jazz, blues, and roots with an offbeat and eclectic charm, Jaffe quickly found his place in the Rochester music scene. His first public performance in Rochester was at the Miniature Infest in 1992 with his “possessed organ.” Not long after, he joined the beloved Colorblind James Experience (CBJE), with whom he performed and recorded on two albums over a period of 8 years. His keyboard solos would be called out to “Brother Jaffe!” in honor of his genuine reference to all of his friends as his brothers. The song “I’ll Fix You Up” was in tribute to Jaffe’s helpful and giving nature. He then performed with HUNU (with prior members of CBJE after Chuck Cuminale’s passing in 2001), followed by stints with the Maria Gillard Band, Buford’s Blues Band, the Lawn Mowers, and the Dady Brothers. He was a frequent guest on the keyboard with Watkins and the Rapiers, the Flipsiders, the Upstate Slumlords, and others. He was inspired by his love of Celtic and Bluegrass music to study fiddle and five string banjo. Besides being a brilliant improvisational musician, he also composed original scores and wrote songs that he performed live around town.
While running his own tuning and piano refurbishing businesses (Chester’s Music and Baby Your Grand) in Rochester, he started a new hobby to become a master in creating marquetry pieces depicting his friends (such as Celly “The Bell,” Chuck, Connie, Buzzo, Joey, John, and Dave H.), inspirational figures like Dylan and Monk, and his own wildly inspired art in wood. He was an avid urban gardener, growing a wild crop of tomatoes each summer by his home in the South Wedge. He enjoyed sugar, tobacco, palmistry, Cribbage, and an array of life’s other finer offerings.
Loved by all who knew him for his charisma, unusual honesty, creativity, sense of humor, and ability to see and champion the best in all of us, Jaffe will be sorely missed.