Bio
Uncle Jig, born René André Vaucresson, has musical roots that go back generations. His Grandfather, Johnny Dave, was a banjo player with the world renowned Sam Morgan Jazz Band. His cousins, the Bouttés—Lillian, John (Treme Song), Tanya, And Trisha—are internationally known throughout Europe for their New Orleans Jazz, Blues, and Gospel sounds. His late brother Robert—an actor, singer, dancer—traveled the world with the touring company of Porgy and Bess. His family's business, Vaucresson Sausage Company, is the only original food vendor at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Rene’s musical talent was discovered at an early age when his parents bought him a trumpet for his fifth birthday, and within ten minutes was playing “When the Saints Go Marching In”. His parents, amazed, called all the neighbors over, and he entertained them for hours. He played trumpet in the grammar school band for a hot minute, but became bored with it because of his love for sports.
Relying on sports to pay the way to college, Rene’s athletic career was cut short by an ankle injury. For a total of fifteen years, René just wasted his life away on coke. He left the family business a couple of times, moved back and forth from Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where he worked in local TV and video production. He had become a huge disappointment to his family and friends. “Most of them just gave up on me after a while. Hell, I gave up on myself. I had become what I had despised, a liar and a thief. I lied to my friends for money. I stole money from my dad. I’m just glad I made peace with my dad a year before he died, or else I know I would still be messed up or dead.”
In 1990, René was sitting in a casino in Las Vegas watching a football game, when a song popped in his head and wouldn’t go away. Days had past and migraines had now come, and he didn’t know what to do to get rid of this noise in his head. “Finally, a friend told me to let it out. Try putting down what you hear. So, I bought a recorder, sang the song into the machine, and low and behold my migraine was gone. So, for years I had a bunch of songs ideas on tape after tape but never did anything with them at all.” Two years later, René would experience a life-changing moment: “I was watching a rerun episode of ER. Dr. Pete Benton’s mother was in the hospital dying, and she said something so profound to her son that it made me breakdown and cry like a baby. She said,"The talent that you have is a gift from God, what you do with that talent is your gift back to God." That hit me so hard that I cried for a half an hour. I kept yelling out, ‘I’m so sorry, God, for wasting the talent that you gave me!’ I knew at that moment I was supposed to be doing music. Here I was, 44 years old, wanting to change my career. But, I knew what I had to do.”
He enrolled at the Globe Institute in San Francisco, where he studied audio production and recording. ”I learned all about music theory, engineering, producing, arranging and music business. It was the best $28,000 I ever invested.”
Two divorces later and still trying to figure out the music game, God sent René a beautiful gift in 2008. Jasmine Sage Vaucresson, daddies little girl. " She's the inspiration to my transformation. Everything I do now I do for her. There is no more selfish René. She's my only child and having her so late in life, I just want to make sure I am able to give her the things in life she is going to need and then some."
Over the last 15 years, Rene has honed his skills and developed his talents while now at the AARP age. Uncle Jig is ready to bring his Smooth R&B Gumbo Funk kinda thing to the world.
“No matter how old you are. What you've been through in life. It's never too late to follow your dream.”