You know that Fats Kaplin is a wizardly multi-instrumentalist from his stints in Jack White's band and with Paul Burch and the WPA Ballclub. You know he performs often with his wife Kristi Rose, using his instrumental aplomb to offset her torchy vocals. If you've been by The 5 Spot in East Nashville lately, you may know he's playing a residency there every Thursday in March (except St. Patrick's Day) with guitarist Wes Langlois and drummer Justin Amaral, starting March 3 with Rose as special guest. So what don't you know about Fats Kaplin?
Fats Kaplin is a magician
That wasn't what we meant by "wizardly," but Kaplin grew up in New York City under the influence of an uncle of some renown as an amateur prestidigitator. Through his uncle he made the acquaintance of the Flosso-Hornmann magic shop on 34th Street, run by Al Flosso, the legendary sleight-of-hand specialist dubbed "the Coney Island Fakir" by Milton Berle. To this day, Kaplin remains a scholar of vintage magic acts, card tricks and feats, some of which he'll perform each show. His favorite? The humble egg bag — a duet for egg and endlessly malleable bag that bears roughly the same easy-to-learn-difficult-to-master significance to magicians that a perfectly roasted chicken does to chefs.
Fats Kaplin has been a ranked chess player
The same uncle and young Fats joined New York's Marshall Chess Club, the oldest such institution in the U.S. At his tournament best, Kaplin held a Harkness Class A rating, just below the ranks of expert and master. Ask him his favorite opening, and what follows is a jaw-dropping 20-minute outline of the parallels between art movements and chess styles from the 1700s on. For the record: He favors the "very clean, defense-minded ideal" of the late 19th century Classicists to the "swashbuckling" Romantics who preceded them or the bohemian Czech Hypermodernists who followed.
Fats Kaplin doesn't know how many instruments he plays
A rough survey would have to list fiddle, mandolin, dobro, steel (all varieties), button accordion, guitar, oud and theremin. But other instruments he doesn't claim to play; he just plays them, sometimes on sessions. Which reminds us that ...
Fats Kaplin will be playing a Turkish instrument called a baglama
Like, for-real Turkish. Like, bought from a guy playing backgammon at a street cafe in Cengelköy across the Bosphorus from Istanbul. Good thing Kristi's sister Erin speaks fluent Turkish — she closed the deal, and the owner of the long-necked lute-like object, a radio-orchestra musician, even threw in two free lessons.
Fats Kaplin has had only one other job besides playing music
You guessed it: dealing craps in Las Vegas. Is there any overlap among these varied experiences and interests and playing music?
"My interest in things that are esoteric, I guess," Kaplin tells the Scene. "There's a world of lore about it, a world of history about it." Which leads us to the difference between fiddling styles in Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama — but that's a story for another night.
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