What made Prince start to concentrate on guitar so much? In my opinion, it was the introduction of Renato Neto. Prince had finally found a keyboard player that had the ability and sound that he could trust to turn the "keys" over to. Renato has enough funk, jazz and R&B mix that seemed to suit Prince. I never saw Prince smile as much as when he was playing with Renato, Rhonda, John B., and the rest. So where is Renato? Have they just parted ways? I get that Prince is going in a new direction to keep things fresh, but, man, those 2 work well together. Renato is the only one that makes me miss Prince on keys a little less. Otherwise, as much as I love prince on guitar (and I do love prince on guitar!) I would love to see him return to the keys a bit.

Renato's all right. But his quasi jazz noodling does get repetitious. But love his noodling on "I love u, but I don't trust you anymore."

As for bass, I am a huge Rhonda fan. Love John B. too!

I also think that Renato's jazzy sound do suit Prince at some moments and at those very moments they play as if they were on the same tide. Prince has so many rythms in his mind, it's like depending on his mood and on the season,or on the forecast; IMO, Prince needs to have ecclectic musicians around, sometimes he would pick Dr Fink, sometimes Cassandra, other times My Hayes, or Renato..sometimes, he suffices to himself.

His current band is not on his vibes, ,he gives the key, he gives the "impulse", they just follow, he's like a teacher to the girls.

thebanishedone said:

ten years ago i would have agree with you,but now days i find Renato's quasy jazz noodling to be very boring and he added zero to the funk

renato ruined every single prince song he ever played on .. please stay gone renato .. please .. prince new music is bad enough .. no need to turn his old music into elevator muzak too

I'm totally in love with Renato's contributions, he's been by far the most experimental Keyboard player Prince ever had (hence some people's misunderstanding of his "sound"). This being said I think he's got nothing to do with P wanting to be known as a guitarist. He was always focused on guitar on stage save a few piano sets here and there, and even fewer performances of keys, bass and drums.

Renato Neto can never be "Prince's most experimental keyboard player"

simply because faux jazz noodling

was done way before Renato.

But we can call Matt Fink Prince's most

experimental player.

Reasons: Nobody played those kind

of synth riffs before Matt.

Facts: On the first album by the Time in a song Get It Up

you can hear first use of edgy synth licks that layed the foundation of the Minneapolis Sound.

I'm still waiting to hear from Renato something like Dr. Finks solo in a song Head.

And btw Renato's solo on 1+1+1=3 is one of the worst i ever heard,it's so out of place.

and one more thing Matt Fink is a great real jazz player also.