Jay Roulston began playing trumpet in public school band in Spokane Washington in 1984. He was a member of the Percussion-naut Patriots Fife and Drum corps from 1986-88, performing regionally as well as tours in California and Washington DC. He graduated from Mead High School in 1992 and attended Central Washington University to study composition and trumpet with Thomas Gause. Jay toured the US and Japan with the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1996-7. In 1999 he moved to Seattle and began a period of performing and recording Jazz, Salsa, Reggae, Classical, Pop, Broadway and anything else with a trumpet in it.

Jay recorded his first album Monkey Mind Control in 2003. He was a performing member of and recorded albums with Frieze of Life, Quasi Nada, Swampdweller Snur, and The Sharpshooters. Jay has been on dozens of other recordings as a sideman. He also maintained a large teaching studio in the greater Seattle area.

Jay walked away from music in 2005, opting to make a living as a low voltage electrician in Seattle. His horns sat in the attic until he retired from the electrical trade in 2019. He and his wife Caitlin and their son Leo all moved to Walla Walla WA in 2020, where Jay began the life of a Housefather (a stay at home dad who works on his house). It was here that he created his small home recording studio and began playing and recording again, initially doing Christmas music to give away during the holidays. While Jay has ceased to perform live music, he is active in his home studio recording brass parts for clients and friends as well as his own projects. A lifelong fan of science fiction films, Jay has embarked on film making with the December 2026 release of his holiday sci-fi short film/music video 12 Days.