Born 1961, in Somerville, New Jersey, Jay first started playing piano in 1967, instructed by the late great Charles Mooth. After years of piano instruction, Jay decided to expand his musical interests towards the guitar. His piano instructor had made it very apparent to his parents that this youngster was a musical prodigy and encouraged his parents to push Jay to broaden his musical knowledge. While continuing to play the piano, Jay studied music composition and theory under some of the top guitar instructors in the Lehigh Valley for the next 6 years. Various styles of study included Rock, Jazz, Blues, Classical, and Fusion. During his high school years Jay performed publicly at local talent shows with his band and as a soloist, dazzling the spectators with amazing electric guitar solos and beautiful original classcial acoustic pieces. As a result of his music experience and public appearances he began to attract the attention of music magazines, in addition to some of the areas well known musicians who performed in the tri-state area.

Jay began performing in nightclubs in 1977 at the early age of 16, the youngest known guitar player in the area at the time playing along side of considerably older musicians in many of the top clubs in Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, New Jersey, and New York. Locations over the years have included Bill Daniels Rock Palace, Mickey Kelly's East & West, Castle Gardens, The Red Rooster, The Box Car, The Larry Holmes Commodore Inn, The Oscar, D.J's Night Club, D.J. Bananas, The Green Pine Inn, Cafe Le Rock, The Trocadero, The Chestnut Street Cabaret, Club Maui, Kenny's Castaways, CBGB's, The Limelight, The Stone Balloon, The Big Kahuna, 23 East, 15 North, the Glaxay, and the Empire. Jay's vast musical experience and contributions has involved him in some of the top performing bands in Pennsylvania, and has labeled him as one of the area's most dynamic guitarist.

Many of the highly successful bands that Jay was involved with over the years included Slyder, Skeleton Crew, Exciter, Cheater, Gandalf, Skeleton Krew, Martha's Monster, Odd Man Out, VH Tribute band Jamie's Cryin, and his self titled band, J. Lee Haven. Jay's bands opened and or heaadlined with various local bands in the Lehigh Valley as well. Some of which included Magnum, Bam Bam, Daddy Licks, Taken, Destroyer, Dirty Blonde, and Rough House to name of few. In addition, Jay was honored to open for the legendary Greg Howe at Bill Daniels Night Club when Greg was cutting a path to stardom back in Greg's hay days. Jay's band opened for national acts during the 1980's. National acts included: White Lion, Yngwie Malmsteen, Great White, Cinderella, Autograph, Warrant, Trixter, Kix, Britney Fox, The Bullet Boys, Joan Jett, Richie Kotzen (of Arthur's Museum and Mr. Big), Tony MacAlpine, Howe II, Keel, Lita Ford, Warlock with Dora Peche, Vixen, and Rough House. Circa 1991 through 1993, Jay toured with the band "Picasso's Trigger", which included locations in Southern California, Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Denver, Arizona, Boston, New York, and Washington.

In late 1993, Jay joined the band Martha's Monster. The band consisted of singer/songwriter Donna Marian, singer/songwriter and bassist, Rude Phillips, guitarist Mark Burkert, (currently performing with national "Tapping the Vein", and percussionist John King. The band's original music was aggressive and very unique, as there were few female fronted bands at that time. Martha's Monster did a stint of original shows throughout Philadelphia and surrounding areas through late 1994 until the band disbanded that year. Six years later, Donna, Rude, and Jay reunited in the band Odd Man Out, and performed over the following three years.

From 1995 through 2009, Jay's Van Halen tribute band Jamie's Cryin performed several regional tours throughout the east coast. Jamie's Cryin' was considered to be the number 1 VH Tribute Band on the entire east & west coast. A highlight of the bands career was an appearance at the First Union Center in Philadelphia. Van Halen's road crew filmed the show live three hours prior to Van Halen taking the stage. The tribute act performed in front of more than 9,000 screaming V.H. fans, sporting a 12,000-watt sound system, which was powered by two separate generators that the tribute act supplied. Folks arriving via I-95 stated that they could here the music as they came closer to the center and assumed it was Van Halen warming up. Once they had arrived they approached a mass of thousands watching the V.H. Tribute Band performing outside the center. The bands appearance was sponsored by WMMR, 93.3. The video was featured on an airing of VH1's "Tribute Band Specials", which aired in 2002, and has aired on a yearly basis to date. The tribute act finally hung up their VH gear after 5 years of performing. Lead singer Ronnie S. moved out to California in 2001 to persue his solo career. Jay and Ron kept in constant contact with each other while Ron was out in California. Ron returned to the East Coast in late 2008. Jay is helping Ron write material for Ron's project,"Addison Rose".

“Neon Fusion”

In the fall of 2004, Brian Worth, J. Haven, Van Chason, and Phillip "Moe" Riley were introduced through mutual friends in Manhattan, New York. The four musicians instantly felt a personal and musical connection after they were introduced. Jay began to travel to Manhattan over the following months to do some session playing. After a short time the group realized that they needed to take this to the next level and formed Neon Fusion. This lineup was similar to a Vai or Satriani format in regards to the material that the band was writing and performing. Over the next two years Neon Fusion commenced with intensive writing and did various regional tours throughout the east and west coast. The shows were in the genre of G3 style performances.

Neon Fusion began recording their first self-titled release in late 2005, which was finally released in Europe in 2007. Their second release, "Parallels", included 17 tracks, which was atypical for a first or even second release. Over the next 5 years the band has done a multitude of East Coast and West Coast regional tours, which included various locations throughout Europe. The band is currently rehearsing in Manhattan. In September 2010, the band will be heading back to Europe, appearing once again in Prague, Rome, Milan, Italy, and Athens, Greece.

Neon Fusion will be releasing their long awaited third released titled “Cause & Effect in the fall of 2010, which will be distributed by Atlantic, in conjunction with Epic Records., . The band is currently engaged in negotiations with several European labels that are interested in distributing the CD internationally. While Jay is currenlty working on his solo record, he has take an indefinite leave from Neon Fusion. New York based guitarist Kristy Shay will be performing with Neon Fusion, which he has done for Jay in the past. The band is currently rehearsing in Manhattan for their upcoming tour in Europe during September, 2010.

Info on Jay’s new
Solo CD titled,

“Evolution”

Jay is currently working on his upcoming solo CD titled "Evolution". Jay has been writing material over the past year and has now begun his collaboration with percussionist Harry Ketterer, former member of national act "Wykked Wytch", and bassist Kurt Wagenseil, former member of national act "Slik Helvetika". The three have spent the summer formatting the material that will be on the record. Once this has been completed, they will begin laying down the final tracks at K.L.R. Studios in Manhattan in early 2011. Evolution will contain some of Jay's most dynamic guitar work, and many are anticipating that this CD will be a chart buster in the solo artist genre. The band is slated to promote the release throughout the East and West Coast to support the new release, which they anticipate to be sometime in late 2011. More information to come!

©2010 J Lee Haven's Neon Fusion
©2010 www.neonfusion.com