‘A little transgressive with a song’: V. Shayne Frederick makes music that connects

From across the semicircular bar at Eddie V’s Prime Seafood in King of Prussia, you can just make out the music over the din of a holiday season Thursday night crowd. Tucked away in the far corner of the lounge, V. Shayne Frederick croons a soulful “When You’re Smiling,” accompanying himself on a Nord Electro keyboard perched atop the piano, backed by bassist Timothy Ragsdale and drummer Conner Saltzer.

Occasionally a pair of stylishly dressed older women stand up from their barstools and dance as Frederick sings “You’ve Got a Friend” or “Mack the Knife.” A guest plays air piano to a jazzy twist on The Temptations’ “My Girl.” The occasional patron strolls by and drops a $20 bill into the wine glass-shaped tip jar.

“This isn’t a concert, it’s incidental music,” Frederick acknowledged, content in the role he plays at the restaurant three or four nights out of the week. “You do someone’s favorite song, they drop a twenty, life is good. I make people happy, and then I go do what I want to do.”

Two nights earlier was a prime example, as Frederick headlined Chris’ Jazz Café to celebrate the release of his latest album, The King Suite. The title plays on Nat “King” Cole and the idea of African royalty, paying homage to the legendary singer while filtering songs associated with him through the multifarious influences of the African diaspora.

The global crosscurrents and regal bearing shine from the cover of the album, which features Frederick sporting a gold complexion and crown, the vibrant red and blue pattern of his jacket standing out against a diamond-patterned backdrop composed of African tribal masks. The image was inspired by the Benin Bronzes, a collection of plaques housed at the British Museum.

“I wanted it to feel globalized,” Frederick explained. “American jazz is influenced by a lot of different things, and I believe that someone of Nat ‘King’ Cole’s stature, if his career hadn’t been cut short by cancer, would have continued to expand his playing and influences. I imagined what he might have sounded like if he’d been around 40 years later when there’s a Bob Marley and a Fela Kuti.”

“I’m an Errand Boy for Rhythm” opens the album with a mission statement, shifting through multiple Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythms. “I Wanna Be a Friend of Yours,” Frederick begins by invoking a Parisian café with its accordion and swaying swing, before embarking for Haiti with a sudden change of mood. English lyrics give way to Creole singing and Yoruba chants; musicians with roots in four continents play together in eclectic harmony.

Frederick has been making these connections throughout his career. Born in North Carolina, he made the same transition to Philadelphia that such jazz icons as Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, and the Heath Brothers had made before him. Splitting his childhood between the two homes, he was raised on the music of the gospel church and contemporary R&B, both of which remain vital influences on his music.

One singer who was not such a profound influence was Nat “King” Cole, but with his silken baritone and elegant charm, Frederick found that he couldn’t avoid comparisons. “There are certain titanic archetypes,” the singer said, “and he’s one of those people. He was not someone I grew up studying and trying to mimic, but in some regards he influenced everybody who came after him.”

Frederick discovered jazz as a teenager and became a regular at Ortlieb’s when he was still too young to sit at the bar. He found mentors in Philly jazz greats — Trudy Pitts and Larry McKenna, both of whom taught music at the Community College of Philadelphia while maintaining flourishing performance careers. Frederick does the same — the night before our conversation at Eddie V’s, he’d watched proudly as his students performed at the University of the Arts.

He serves as a governor on the Board of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Recording Academy and is a cocurator of musical programming with Philadelphia Contemporary, while also performing regularly at venues including South Jazz Kitchen and JG Skyhigh at the Four Seasons.

“It’s weird, you don’t really know that someone has passed you the torch until your hand is on fire,” Frederick marveled. “I realize now that some of my students look at me in a way similar to how I looked at Trudy Pitts and Larry McKenna. But I’m still just trying to do my thing.”

His “thing” — he does that even at a restaurant gig, where he refuses to go through the motions even when much of the room is more fixated on the football game on the TV behind the bar. Singing “The Girl From Ipanema,” he stretches the familiar melody like taffy; “My Favorite Things” is brought up to date with an infectious R&B groove.

“It fits into my musical practice of being a little transgressive with a song,” Frederick said. “I don’t think of this as a lesser form of art. For me it all connects to people.”

V. Shayne Frederick’s “The King Suite” is available at vshayne.bandcamp.com/album/the-king-suite