JASON NELSON
Jason Nelson is a HIGH-ENERGY entertainer for all ages. Born and raised in Hillsborough, NJ, Jason Nelson quickly learned how to play the piano, saxophone, guitar, recorder, and harmonica, all before the age of ten.
Jason graduated from the Rutgers Business School in 2017 with a B.S. in Marketing and a Certificate in Recording Arts from the Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Performing Arts.
After a few years working in the marketing industry, Jason made the decision to leave his 9-5 job during the 2020 pandemic and hasn't looked back since. Now a full-time business owner currently living in Hoboken, NJ, Jason has had the pleasure of playing 400+ events (including 200+ weddings), in addition to private parties, festivals, nightclubs, bars, booze cruises, brunches, restaurants, and wineries.
Along with his performances around the Tri-State Area, Jason also frequently travels for destination events and has been fortunate enough to perform in Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Miami, Boston, Scottsdale, Newport, Lake Tahoe, Palo Alto, Colorado Springs,Charleston, & St. Augustine.
MY STORY
Jason Nelson is a HIGH-ENERGY entertainer for all ages. Born and raised in Hillsborough, NJ, Jason Nelson quickly learned how to play the piano, saxophone, guitar, recorder, and harmonica, all before the age of ten.
Having 20+ years of experience on the piano and 17+ years on the alto saxophone, Jason has been sharing his love of music with the world ever since he was a child. When YouTube became popular around 2008, Jason would often record himself covering popular songs on both the piano & sax, where he surpassed 100,000 YouTube views in 2008.
Jason graduated from the Rutgers Business School in 2017 with a B.S. in Marketing and a Certificate in Recording Arts from the Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Performing Arts. After a few years working in the marketing industry, Jason made the decision to leave his 9-5 job during the 2020 pandemic and hasn't looked back since. Now a full-time business owner currently living in Hoboken, NJ, Jason has had the pleasure of playing hundreds of events, performing for weddings, private parties, festivals, nightclubs, bars, booze cruises, brunches, restaurants, and wineries. Over the past few years, he's had the opportunity to play several destination events, including performances in Puerto Rico, Miami, Boston, Scottsdale, Newport, Lake Tahoe, Palo Alto, Charleston, & St. Augustine.
NOTABLE CLIENTS
If you’re anything like me, you frequently love going out to bars with your friends and love to dance and scream every single word to your favorite songs. The way I have always interacted with my friends in fraternity basements, Hoboken bars, or Jersey Shore clubs is the EXACT same way that I interact with crowds when I perform at parties; the only difference is that I have a saxophone around my neck!
I strongly believe that it is important to absolutely love what you do, find your passion, and triple down on your strengths. Life is too short to dwell on the “what if’s” - hence, why I decided to leave the 9-5 world a few years back to take my business full time.
A few fun facts about me:
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I have perfect pitch which allows me the ability to play virtually any song by ear on the sax & piano (I LOVE covering pop songs).
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I've seen Blink-182 8 times, as they are my all-time favorite band (if you also like pop-punk, I HIGHLY recommend adding “All the Small Things,” and “What’s My Age Again” to your must-play list!).
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I’m a die-hard Mets & Jets fan, so if you follow me on Instagram, you'll catch me posting about my teams VERY OFTEN during the seasons (hopefully we’ll eventually win a championship or two in my lifetime).
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Although I've lived in NJ my whole life, I've been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel for events all over the world and am inspired to possibly make another city my future home.
MY MOTTO
I’ve been thankful to have been featured on television, popular social media accounts, and well known publications. Check out some of them below:
AS SEEN ON
FAQ
Yes, I can work with anyone! If your event is in NJ/NYC, there’s a good chance I’ve either worked with your DJ before or have mutual friends in common with them. However, if we’ve never met before, I typically like to hop on a call with your DJ as we get closer to the event to iron out the final details for the musical flow throughout the night. Please note that I do charge an additional small fee if I’m working with a new DJ for the first time.
On many events where I’ve worked with a particular DJ for the first time, I’ve actually had guests come up to us and ask how long we’ve been working together because of our synergy!
If you haven’t yet booked a DJ, feel free to ask me for recommendations, and I’d be happy to provide a few of my most talented and trusted DJ company friends!
Most couples have me there for your entire 4 hour reception! My role at every event is to party WITH you instead of FOR you! After playing over 200 weddings, I’ve noticed that the best nights are when I get to share the dance floor with you, along with your friends and family and after spending 4+ hours together, we’ve hopefully created synergy together on the dance floor and partied HARD.
Also, please keep in mind that wedding timelines often change last minute due to scheduling conflicts, backed up kitchens, etc., and if I’m booked for a shorter duration, I can’t control if we don’t get as much time to dance together!I LOVE to travel all over the world for events and have been thankful to travel frequently for destination events.
For destination events (not drivable from Hoboken, NJ), I will build a custom proposal for you which will include my performance rate and all additional expenses (flight, hotel, ground transportation, & meals). My goal is to make the booking process as easy as possible, so if you would like to book my flight + hotel yourself because you have points or get better rates yourself, I’m always open to that as well!
For regional events (~3-4 hour drive from Hoboken, NJ), I typically will add on a TBD flat fee to the invoice for all estimated expenses (hotel, gas, tolls, parking, & meals).While I’ve worked with bands before and can play most songs by ear, I typically don’t feel comfortable stealing the spotlight from them. I have a tremendous amount of respect for wedding bands, especially if they’ve played together for many years and practice regularly. Almost the entirety of my playing time will be out on the dance floor WITH you, instead of standing in one spot like most musicians in a group.
My recommendation: Book me to play during your afterparty! I often play afterparties (with DJ’s or solo with my own speaker) for couples who have bands booked during their reception. This is an incredible way to incorporate live music throughout the entire night!
One of the reasons I'm super thankful to love what I do is that no two weddings are ever the same. There are some songs where I'll hang back/grab a drink of water/catch my breath, while other times, I'm out there absolutely wailing and going crazy on the dance floor. Just like your DJ, most of my job involves reading the room and determining the best way to build up the energy for a nonstop party!
I use a wireless sax mic that clips onto the bell of my horn. I have one mic receiver box and a small Yamaha mixer for effects, so I'll need 2 power outlets (if they only have one, that's fine because I have a small power strip). I can feed my Yamaha mixer into their DJ controller/mixer/etc. with an XLR, RCA, or 1/4" cable. I have all of the cables, I'll just need the input (line preferred).
If they have any questions, feel free to connect me with them!
Yes, absolutely! I’m super thankful to have rockstar couples who put their full trust in me (some even ask me for my availability prior to booking their venue), so we can definitely lock in the date prior to you booking your DJ if you’re still deciding between a few DJ options.
Yes, I have a vendor liability insurance policy and can send your venue a Certificate of Insurance if asked.
THE ENERGY
Spending 4 years at a huge party school like Rutgers, I became obsessed with mainstream house music (I was a freshman in college when “Animals” by Martin Garrix became popular, ya feel?).
During my free time in college, I enjoyed spending hundreds of hours mixing house songs together in my DJ software program to make mixes for my friends to play at parties (and even DJ’ed for my friends at parties from time to time too). Calling my mixes “The Essential Jason Nelson,” my closest friends naturally started calling me this nickname, and naturally it stuck.
JASON NELSON
Jason Nelson is a HIGH-ENERGY entertainer for all ages. Born and raised in Hillsborough, NJ, Jason Nelson quickly learned how to play the piano, saxophone, guitar, recorder, and harmonica, all before the age of ten.
Jason graduated from the Rutgers Business School in 2017 with a B.S. in Marketing and a Certificate in Recording Arts from the Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Performing Arts.
After a few years working in the marketing industry, Jason made the decision to leave his 9-5 job during the 2020 pandemic and hasn't looked back since. Now a full-time business owner currently living in Hoboken, NJ, Jason has had the pleasure of playing 400+ events (including 200+ weddings), in addition to private parties, festivals, nightclubs, bars, booze cruises, brunches, restaurants, and wineries.
Along with his performances around the Tri-State Area, Jason also frequently travels for destination events and has been fortunate enough to perform in Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Miami, Boston, Scottsdale, Newport, Lake Tahoe, Palo Alto, Charleston, & St. Augustine.