Four years ago Ziek McCarter's father was shot and killed by law enforcement in East Texas. The charismatic 22-year-old singer of San Francisco soul band Con Brio got the devastating news just hours before he was to perform at a Kwanzaa show, so McCarter went to the one place in the Fillmore that's always been like home to him — Marcus Bookstore, which (before it was evicted in 2014) was the nation's longest-running black-owned, black-themed neighborhood bookstore.
"The spiritual potency in that building is so high," McCarter said of the historic building that housed the bookstore and formerly Bop City, a jazz club that hosted such greats as Miles Davis and John Coltrane. "They were just so supportive — they're just family to me."
It was there, surrounded by literature documenting the African-American struggle, that Karen Johnson helped give McCarter the strength to continue on and perform the night his father died.
"I went straight to her," McCarter said of Johnson. "She's almost like a mentor. She's taught me a lot about music, community, history. I had done a little bit of crying but I didn't have much time to get things together because I had to go do a show. So I walked to Marcus Books to get some words of encouragement or support, I dunno." What Johnson told him was simple but profound. "I just want to take this time to hold up a mirror, because your father is now with you," he recalled her saying. "You may see your dad in many places, so get ready for it, embrace it, and allow it to lead you in a positive way."
The trajedy inspired McCarter to write "Free N Brave," a song that plays off the "Star Spangled Banner," juxtaposing pride with disappointment. He dedicates it to his father and other victims of police brutality.
"Creating and innovating on stage is a healer," McCarter said. "Not only for the person creating but potentially for those who are experiencing it on the other side."
Con Brio, still riding the recent release of Kiss the Sun, the band's debut release with McCarter, is set to perform on the main stage at Napa's BottleRock Festival on Saturday, May 30. The band is also back in the studio, working on the full-length album that will include "Free N Brave," and has tour plans that will see McCarter celebrate his 23rd birthday in Europe.
Though he was raised in Texas, McCarter's family has strong ties to the Bay Area and Marcus Bookstore. His grandfather was a dentist in the Fillmore when most of the businesses there were black-owned. He and his wife befriended Drs. Raye and Julian Richardson, the shop's co-owners. Years later, when McCarter, fresh in town, walked in and explained who his family was, he was welcomed with open arms. He spent numerous days and nights practicing on the store's piano, writing music, and singing.
"I came up with a lot of songs and a lot of ideas in there. I would be playing and singing in there all the time, for hours," McCarter said, and laughed. "I used to think, 'Man, do you ever want me to shut up?'" McCarter was still a teenager the first time he hopped on a San Francisco stage. A student at City College, he had sneaked into the Boom Boom Room, still wearing the apron from his day job as a bagger at Lucky Supermarket, to see the local dance-fusion group Afrolicious. After getting swept up in the group's passion and energy, McCarter knew that just sitting in the crowd wasn't going to be enough. By night's end, he was at center stage, singing with the band.
It was McCarter's first step on the road to joining Con Brio — but hardly his first step towards music. That happened when he was just 2 years old.
McCarter remembers the experience vividly: "I had woken up from a nap and my family was in the living room. I walked down this dark hallway towards this music, where everyone was laughing and having a good time.When I made it to the end of the hall, I saw the music was coming from this huge speaker that was a lot bigger than I was, and I just walked up to it and surrendered to the voice coming out of it. That voice was James Brown."
The hallway McCarter journeyed down as a child was in Houston, where he lived until he moved to Austin at 17 (again towards the music) and then San Francisco the following year.
McCarter's household had always been musical. His father played blues guitar for the family to sing along to, and McCarter spent much of his childhood toying around with the family video camera, taking it up to the attic to tape his singing, or positioning it in a room so he could film and review his James Brown moves.
These days, McCarter has his own moves. Onstage his legs turn into snakes, trained to rise and dance to Con Brio's soulful rhythms. Drawing from dances he learned in Texas that predate "the Dougie," as well as New York's Get Lite movement and even a little ballet, McCarter's moves bring the bands live shows to a different level. It's musical theater, meant to be as entertaining visually as the group's funky, blues-tinged soul is sonically. The singer displays shades of James Brown and Prince, and a voice that shares wavelengths with Curtis Mayfield — an inspiration so strong McCarter and the band did a tribute to the socially progressive soul singer for a Halloween set, with McCarter taking on Mayfield's persona while the band played his songs from the 1972 blaxploitation flick Super Fly (one of the few films in history to be out-grossed by its soundtrack).
Con Brio, named for the familiar sheet-music direction that indicates "with spirit," is part of a long lineage of Bay Area soul bands dating back to Sly and the Family Stone — bands unafraid to experiment and think outside the box. The group throws in almost metallic guitar solos in some songs and jams on an R&B groove in others for several minutes. Con Brio takes chances, pouring enough spirit into every note that any other name wouldn't do the band justice.
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