Tris Imboden

Aside from a brief, early move to Germany, Tris Imboden was raised in various beachside communities of Orange County in Southern California.^[4]

I still remember the day my dad took me to a Fourth of July parade in Huntington Beach. This marching band from Compton came down the street and the cadence that they were playing almost made me hysterical. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.^[5]

... the drum section was just smoking ... I was so deeply moved. But I knew at that moment that was what I was going to have to do.^[6]

So from that point on I was always drawn toward drums.^[5]

His formal training began in grade school, and until there was an available position in the percussion section of the school band, he drummed at home on a practice pad and studied basic music theory on the trumpet at school. He ultimately reached the position of second-chair trumpeter before switching to the then-available percussion section in junior high school.^[7][8] He currently resides in Malibu, California, and on the island of Kauai, Hawai'i, where he is an avid surfer.^[7]

Imboden began his adolescent career in various surf bands, and then achieved professional status in a high school band called The Other Half. The band performed at venues ranging from sock hops to Hollywood's venerable Teenage Fair, where Imboden said their popularity "clogged the whole entrance."^[5]: 21 Out of Newport Harbor High School, Imboden co-founded Honk in 1970.^{[d 3]} After recording some demo songs, the band's first album was the soundtrack for the surf movie Five Summer Stories,^{[v 2]} crediting Imboden as composer, producer, drummer, harmonica player, and vocalist. Imboden established a career trend, ultimately lasting through to Chicago, of occasionally being featured on harmonica. The song "Pipeline Sequence" reached No. 1 on Hawai'i radio.^{[4][d 4]} Being a member of Honk provided Imboden with formative future-career experience as the band honed their studio recording skills, their touring skills, and innumerable industry contacts. They worked with bands which would eventually serve as Imboden's future professional base by touring with Loggins and Messina, Jackson Browne, and The Beach Boys—and by opening Chicago's concerts.^[7] Honk went on hiatus from 1976 to 1986, when they established a tradition of periodic reunion concerts in their original home area of Southern California, as band members' schedules permit.

From 1977 to 1986, Imboden became a full-time recording and touring member of the Kenny Loggins Band, and then would do part-time work with them until 1989, for a total of 12 years of collaboration. During his full-time tenure there, he composed and performed the drum set arrangements for popular 1980s motion picture soundtracks for Caddyshack and Footloose.^[7]

From the end of his full-time duration with Kenny Loggins in 1986 until 1989, Imboden's career became a full-time composite of various part-time session recordings and live performances with various groups. His consistent work throughout that entire duration included part-time work with Kenny Loggins, stage support for Al Jarreau, and Chaka Khan.^[4][7] In 1986, he performed drum-set overdub sessions for Neil Diamond's Headed for the Future album. This provided a venue for Imboden's studio session collaboration with then-member of Chicago, Bill Champlin.^{[d 5]} In 1988, he was a studio session player with former member of Chicago, bassist/lead vocalist Peter Cetera on the latter's solo album One More Story.^{[d 6]}

In 1990, his career was reshaped by joining the multi-platinum Chicago. With the departure of founding drummer Danny Seraphine, Imboden joined the band as the full-time drummer^[7] in time for the band's 1991 release titled Twenty 1.^{[d 7]} As an integral part of Chicago for the latter half of the band's 58-year total career, Imboden would contribute to twelve Chicago records, and to tours alongside The Beach Boys, Earth, Wind, & Fire, and The Doobie Brothers. Since 2012, the drum chair has been occupied by Chicago's newest full-time member, veteran auxiliary percussionist Walfredo Reyes, Jr.^[9]