John Lewis Nelson (1916-2001) arrived in Minneapolis from Louisiana in 1948, and started the Prince Rogers Trio with other local musicians. Nelson (left, in the above photo) adopted “Prince Rogers” as a stage name and later gave that name to his famous son. Here, his trio is shown performing at what was most likely a wedding reception.

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This photo is from the recently acquired John Glanton Collection at the Hennepin County Library Special Collections, which consists of hundreds of original photographs of Minneapolis’ African-American community from the late 1940s.

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What a beautiful picture! I had already seen one Prince Rogers Trio picture but I had never seen this one before.

Thanks for posting it.

And what an interesting coincidence that Prince´s dad and Andre Cymone´s dad were in the same band.

Mr. John L. Nelson looks a bit younger in this photo and has thicker hair, and he and Mr. Anderson look a lot like their sons. Or, put it this way....their sons looked a lot like them.

Great photo, thanks for the thread.

Wow great photo. Prince and Andre looks like their dads .

This is so awesome!

prince looks nothing like his dad

Who's Andre's dad? And is the "Trio" the three guys playing with John L./"Prince Rogers" or do they have an extra guy sitting in for this show? I'd always assumed it was just a three piece (including John L.).

Wow fabulous photo - never seen that one before (I dont think Prince looked like his dad though). Thank you for sharing.

Dilan said:

prince looks nothing like his dad

His mouth and chin does, and jaw line. His eyes are his mother's.

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And I don't know if Andre's father is in this photo, but the bass player makes me think of Andre.

EddieC said:

Who's Andre's dad? And is the "Trio" the three guys playing with John L./"Prince Rogers" or do they have an extra guy sitting in for this show? I'd always assumed it was just a three piece (including John L.).

Well, now that you mention it...there are indeed four guys in this picture. I hadn´t even noticed that.

I would guess that the sax player is just a guest .

Love it!

I'm too lazy to make a screencap, but I can think of a shot in UTCM where P really looks like his dad here: Chris's reaction shot as Tricky says to Mary, "I want a girl who can teach me things, hip me to the finer side of life."

eyewishuheaven said:

Love it!

I'm too lazy to make a screencap, but I can think of a shot in UTCM where P really looks like his dad here: Chris's reaction shot as Tricky says to Mary, "I want a girl who can teach me things, hip me to the finer side of life."

I think that might just be more of the position he's sitting in (head turned over the shoulder, in black and white, while sitting at the piano), not that he resembles his father with facial features. Just a thought. More of a mimic, than a resemblance.

TrivialPursuit said:

eyewishuheaven said:

Love it!

I'm too lazy to make a screencap, but I can think of a shot in UTCM where P really looks like his dad here: Chris's reaction shot as Tricky says to Mary, "I want a girl who can teach me things, hip me to the finer side of life."

I think that might just be more of the position he's sitting in (head turned over the shoulder, in black and white, while sitting at the piano), not that he resembles his father with facial features. Just a thought. More of a mimic, than a resemblance.

Perhaps. I'd give it another look, but my computer's drive has a habit of keeping discs trapped inside it for days on end.

Prince looked a lot like his dad. Even the way John L holds his mouth looks like Prince.

That mouth is ALL Prince

WOW!...Andre's pop, too... historical artifact...

TrivialPursuit said:

John Lewis Nelson (1916-2001) arrived in Minneapolis from Louisiana in 1948, and started the Prince Rogers Trio with other local musicians. Nelson (left, in the above photo) adopted “Prince Rogers” as a stage name and later gave that name to his famous son. Here, his trio is shown performing at what was most likely a wedding reception.

.

This photo is from the recently acquired John Glanton Collection at the Hennepin County Library Special Collections, which consists of hundreds of original photographs of Minneapolis’ African-American community from the late 1940s.

.

source

Great Photo! Yep, the horns are usually added based on the budget for the gig. Signed, grumpy Saxophone player's ex.

funksterr said:

NorthC said:

All very nice, but how's that a TRIO when I see FOUR (4) musicians?

Read the responses.

Great find, pops was fine back in the day!

I can see Andre's resemblance, but not Prince's. The only thing is that they were both fine looking men with fine facial features.

...a trio?...

"WHATS THE MATTER WITH THIS HOUSE?????!!!"

This is great, thanks for posting. I can def. see the similarity between Prince's lower part of the face and his dad's.

Aerogram said:

I can see Andre's resemblance, but not Prince's. The only thing is that they were both fine looking men with fine facial features.

Put your hand over John's face, and look at only his nose and below. I've seen Prince purse his lips like that more than once.

Tyka looks more like him , than Prince...but they both look like him...