After picking up the guitar at age 12, Jay began learning his craft by listening to such guitar wizards as Steve Via, Eddie Van Halen, AL De Miolla, Jimmy Page, Warren Did Martini and George Lynch. At the same time influenced by artists way before his time. Such as The Bee Gees, Elvis, Elton John and The Beatles. A mixture of all these styles of music scalped a unique approach at studying the guitar and a broad songwriting range. Which led to the beginning of the art of recording using a 2 track radio.
At age 14 Jay began playing in clubs around Rochester playing in a popular band Parris. After 2 years of playing covers, an urge for creating original music began to arrive. This was mostly brought on by a divine intervention. Jay had the opportunity to sit down and jam with one his biggest heroes, Steve Vai. After one of the David Lee Roth shows, Jay snuck in the hotel bar where Steve was and simply asked him for a lesson and to jam. Impressed by young Jay’s enthusiasm Steve said yes. The Jam session consisted of mostly Jay playing Steve’s songs from the album Eat’em and Smile! And a swarm of questions. This encounter was a life-changing event for Jay. This encounter also led up to the beginning of the 4 track recording sessions. He knew he wanted to write and play music for rest of his life.
The summer of 1988 Jay was asked to join the local ˝ cover ˝ original band Jaded Heart. After writing for 6 months in the band they released Heart Attack! In the summer of 1989,With The help of Uncle Rojer from 96.6 WCMF and Uncle Kong’s Stud factory on 90.5 WBER, which gave the band regular rotation on their shows. Playing almost every weekend the band had some local and international popularity.
1991 Jay finished his associate’s degree in music and continued to study jazz and classical guitar at the Hochstein School of music. Soon after Jay was asked to join an all Original band Blvd. Brat. . After an intense song writing binge Jay and the band wrote about 27 songs. After the release of the Blvd. Brat E.P. and a brief club tour the band dismantled.
Soon after in 1993 Jay formed the band Typhoid Mary and began writing immediately. The band released Visions of Light and quickly gained headlining status and the respect of local musicians and critics. With once again the help of Uncle Rojer from WCMF 96.5, the band was on regular rotation and had live appearances on the Homegrown show. After about 2 ˝ years of playing and writing, the band decided to call it quits.
In 1996 Jay constructed his own studio. “The 8 track day’s” and released his first solo CD. An Angels Requiem. This was an A very experimental time for Jay in song writing and production. This was also Jay’s first first attempt at playing all the instruments, producing and engineering. The song writing for this album began while Jay was in Typhoid Mary and was a step towards a more modern industrial sound that was part of the reason for Typhoid Mary’s break up.
After the release of the Lost Faith cd. Jay took a little time off from writing and had some brief encounters playing with Nick and the Nice Guys, A local Cover band giant. And played Briefly with his friends and local industrial band Bitter Flesh Thing. After BFT asked Jay to learn their entire cd 10 hours before the Ernie Ball battle of the bands contest. The band came in first place and played the warped tour.
In 1999 Jay released his second solo album, Out of me in to you. This was the second release where Jay played all the instruments and sang all the vocal tracks. This album was 180-degree change form An Angels Requiem and any other release form Jay. This Album was more on the contemporary side with slow tempos and huge soft choruses. After this release Jay continued to build and upgrade his home studio “The unlimited digital days have arrived!”. Concentrating more on songwriting and producing. Jay also started recording and session work for other local and national artists such as Brian McKnight, Jennifer Marie, Omni blank, Bitter flesh thing and Mathew D. Guarnere.
Three years in the making Jay finally finished his 3rd solo release Abstract. Once Again with Jay mainly on all the instruments and vocals. It was not an easy task recording this album, due to crashing computers, and losing songs. Jay almost lost a finger in an accident at work at which he though he wouldn’t be able to play again. How ever, patience is a virtue. The computer was rebuilt, the songs were re-written and the finger healed. And Abstract became a reality.