Ted
Nicolosi is a guitar wizard. And, at a quiet 13
years, he lets his guitar do most of the talking. His fingers move swiftly over
his Ovation’s neck as he weaves in and out of complex scales and runs. He makes
it look easy.
As
half of the father-son duo Shared Genes, Ted first learned guitar from his
father, Sam. But when Sam gave Ted his first guitar at age 5, the young Nicolosi was nonplussed.
“It was just a toy to me,” Ted says. “I wanted
a race track.”
But
with a steady diet of Beatles and other acoustic-rooted guitar music like
Acoustic Alchemy playing around the house, Ted started mimicking what he heard.
Realizing the kid could actually play, Sam bought him his first real electric
guitar at age seven.
Then
the lessons began.
“I wouldn’t call them lessons,” Ted says. “He’d just call me over and start showing me
chords.”
“I
reinforced him with chocolate,” Sam says.
The
squirt quickly surpassed his old man, who had initially planned on plugging the
kid into the rhythm position.
“Originally
I wanted him to play the chords and realized he couldn’t do it,” says Sam. “It
was actually easier for him to play the leads. Really it was an act of
generosity, ’cause I wanted to play the leads.”
Like
every other kid in the ’60s, Sam picked up the guitar for the same reason: The
Beatles. His father, like every other parent in the ’60s, wouldn’t let him have
a guitar and made him take banjo lessons instead. So Sam played banjo in a band
he formed with friends and rehearsed in the same Central Park neighborhood as Rochester rock ‘n’ roll legends The Invictas
and The Rustix.
“I
was playing the chords but it didn’t sound right,” he says.Finally
his mother bought a guitar for him sub rosa; he had
to hide it under the bed.
But
Sam didn’t really have rock ‘n’ roll dreams. Since he was a boy he wanted to be
a mechanical engineer; which is exactly what he did at Xerox for 15 years
before the work of his whole department was outsourced to Mexico.
The
ax fell October 2001, two weeks before Shared Genes’ first gig. Since then Sam
guesstimates the duo has played over 500 shows together in coffee houses,
restaurants, pizza joints, sub shops, public markets, grocery stores, senior
homes, sports bars, and festivals.
So
rather serendipitously, Shared Genes became a professional act.
“And
I’ll tell ya,” Sam says. “That’s the only thing
that’s been keeping my mind straight.”
The synergy between the two guitarists is apparent. The father-son dynamic fades into one
more like that between good friends. Still the type of telepathy afforded
through bloodline is undeniable. They blend beautifully. And they finish each other’s
sentences, especially when recalling a recent career highlight: opening a
sold-out show for Acoustic Alchemy at Milestones.
“That
was amazing,” Ted says.
The
majority of Shared Genes’ set consists of Acoustic Alchemy’s music. It takes a
lot of guts to play the headliner’s tunes in your set. They had to clear it
with the band.
“The
manager said no,” Sam says. “But [Acoustic Alchemy guitarist] Greg Carmichael
said alright.” Carmichael dug their whole set from the side of the stage. The
audience dug it, too.
“Right
after the first song,” Ted says, “I’m never gonna
forget that noise, the applause and the cheering.”
“It
was like a sonic boom,” says Sam. “They just erupted.”
But
the majority of Shared Genes gigs are more casual affairs, with the band
chugging along at coffee houses or happy hours at local bars. Sometimes they’ll
get women in their ’20s and ’30s (“old ladies” to Ted) dancing in front of the
bandstand or folks approaching with compliments on their playing — some
amazed at how young Ted is. Sam’s assured it’s not just Ted’s age, but his
six-string prowess as well.
“Well
he is better than me now,” he says.
Sam
and Ted seem to like where they’re at. Not that they lack motivation, but
they’re content.
“We
like to play live,” Sam says. “That’s where the real thrill is. We really don’t
expect a recording contract.”
“Or
that big break that they all talk about,” Ted adds. “We just keep pickin’ and grinnin.'”
Shared Genes plays
Thursday, March 16, at Beale Street Café, 689 South Avenue, 271-4650, 6:30 to 8
p.m. No cover. And you can catch them Friday, March 17, at Woody’s II, 2758
West Henrietta Road, 424-6440, 5:30 to 8 p.m. No cover. www.sharedgenes.com
This article appears in Mar 15-21, 2006.
