Jesse Collins was born in Dover, New Hampshire, and spent his first five years living on Rock Rimmon Mountain where he drank rainwater and ate fresh blueberries. His first word was “record.”

After moving to New York state, Jesse took up drums, piano, and later the saxophone, which he studied with Tom Sococio, who gave his students Charlie Parker solos to use as practice etudes.

When Jesse was 14 years old he made his first professional gigs. Later that year, Jesse was named outstanding soloist at a Syracuse High School Band showcase and received a scholarship to attend the Eastern US Music Camp. This six week conservatory-style program was a 9 am-to-9 pm intensive music study where Jesse learned both classical and jazz theory as well as writing and arranging for orchestras and big bands.

In 1987 Jesse attended Ithaca College. There he studied classical saxophone with Steven Mauk. In Ithaca he played with many great musicians including John Margolies and Todd Horton.

In 1989, Jesse toured for six months with The Blackdog Band, a funky, rhythm and blues band led by guitarist Jon Riddnell. The Blackdog Band performed throughout the Northeast with such groups as Blues Traveler, the Spin Doctors, and the Sun Ra Arkestra.

Jesse settled in New York City where he had the opportunity to attend the New School for Social Research's new Jazz Studies Program. This school had 40 to 50 of the great names in jazz today as its students and a majority of the living jazz legends of the twentieth century as the teachers.

From 1990 to 1997 and 2000 to 2005, Jesse lived in NYC where he led his own groups and worked as a sideman in many prominent New York City groups. He worked with such jazz luminaries as Jimmy Cobb, Sacha Perry, Omer Avital, Denis Charles, Carlos McKinney, Avishai Cohen, Boris Kozlow, and Johnny Ellis.

Jesse frequently attended jam sessions at the ST Bar and was a regular in the emerging scene at the jazz club Smalls.

He also had the great fortune to get a lesson or two with some of the living legends on the scene at that time, including Sam Rivers, Reggie Workman, Lee Konitz, Jacki Byard, Junior Mance, Arnie Lawrence, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Rashid Ali, Cecil McBee, Steve Coleman, and Bernard Purdy.

On a 2002 trip to play the club Awful Al's in Syracuse, New York, he was invited to be a guest at a small upstart music festival in the Sterling Valley of upstate New York.

Upon returning to NYC, he composed the first songs of what would become standards for the Interstellar Funkateers and later the Jesse Collins Band – a Miles and Coltrane meet P-Funk jazz funk dance band.

With the help of entrepreneur David Latimer, Jesse’s album Introducing Jesse Collins was released in 2003. A compilation of live material from 1996-2002 recorded in the New York City clubs Smalls and Fat Cats, Introducing Jesse Collins was named a Jazz Times magazine Critics Pick Top 10 pick.

In 2005 Jesse moved to Syracuse, New York to produce his work. From 2005 to 2010 he performed with the Interstellar Funkateers and had the opportunity to perform with many great local Syracuse groups including the Syracuse Symphony, the Central NY Jazz Orchestra, the Stan Colella Orchestra, the DeSantis Orchestra and the Tim Herron Corporation.

Throughout the summer of 2011, Jesse was very busy at different summer festivals, at the Rainbow Shores Hotel monthly concert series, and at clubs in the upstate New York area.