The Back Bone Beat

Founded and developed by Pat Kahn, Kyle DeLuca and Victor Scherman, The Backbone Beat has been steadily progressing since late 2008. Co-founder Patrick Kahn grew up within a musical family, and began studying music at the age of five. Kahn's early education consisted of piano, however before the age of ten switched to the drum kit, quickly turning to a focus on jazz, which would be his genre of choice until the end of high-school, at which point Kahn began branching out into Blues, rock and R&B. Co-founder Kyle De Luca began playing electric guitar in his early teens, focusing primarily on modern rock and pop music. However during high-school De Luca found an interest in both classical music as well as 60's soul, which would quickly influence his guitar playing and singing. After years of working together in various highschool music ensembles, as well as forming a rock band that worked both as an independent group as well as a backup group for other established artists, Kahn and DeLuca began working with York University Jazz studies student Victor Scherman on a project that was anticipated to focus on a tight, professional and high energy live show, with its core being a “groove-funk sound”. The goal was to incorporate favored elements of other styles of music (including blues, jazz and country) into what was at its core Funk and 60's R&B.

The three piece worked the local music scene, playing in establishments both impressive and humble taking note of what ideas land well and which ones do not. By mid-2009 the group had been padded out with the addition of Thelonious Bajcar, a former child prodigy and piano virtuoso turned awry, who used his classical training to deliver a thick, raunchy vintage organ sound, as well as Tom Kania, a well versed rock drummer turned conga player and percussionist, and all around friendly guy, adding an additional layer of rhythm to the live experience.

Veteran trumpet player Conrad Rockel came into the group within the same time period, becoming particularly important in the composition of the 5 piece horn arrangements as heard on The Backbone Beat EP, performed by Rockel himself as well as contributing Tenor Saxophonist Wayne Brewer. The live horn section as of early-mid 2010 consisted simply of Rockel and newly recruited tenor saxophonist Catherine Ruttan. This 7 piece roster worked well for delivering the energy and spirit that the music was written to convey, however it was still lacking. The addition of trombonist Elburz Sorkhabi added the bottom end to the horn section that really allowed the arrangements to have the necessary depth of harmony to compete with the aggressive rhythm. The EP release took place in August of 2010, and was an opportunity for the band to push everything to its limit. Wayne Brewer joined the horn section for the show as the primary soloist, creating an even more earth rattling sound from the now 9 person funk ensemble. The event was filmed by local indie-filmmaker and director Marc Boggio and is currently in the works to be released via several different mediums. Early in the fall of 2010, the founding members of the Backbone Beat worked out a deal to acquire a small-professional recording studio on the east end of Toronto. This is providing the band a home base in which to begin writing, recording, and organizing the next phase of the act, which includes plans to record a full length LP onto tape, and a base from which to continue putting on high energy funk around Toronto and Canada.