Gregory Tristan "Tris" Imboden (born July 27, 1951) is an American rock and jazz drummer. As a performer, he has been in
studio sessions and on
tour with some of the most notable and highest-selling musicians of all time.
He was the drummer for the multi-platinum band
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
from 1990 to 2018.
He is a
multi-platinum
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
selling artist.
As an educator, he has been a
drum clinician and author of tutorial materials.
Some of Imboden's most notable work include recordings with
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling musicians of all time.
He has written and ...
,
Kenny Loggins
Kenneth Clark "Kenny" Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded with Jim Messina (musician), Jim Mess ...
,
Firefall
Firefall is an American soft rock band that formed in Boulder, Colorado, in 1974. It was founded by Rick Roberts (musician), Rick Roberts, former member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Jock Bartley, who had been Tommy Bolin's replacement ...
,
Richard Marx,
Steve Vai
Steven Siro Vai ( ; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a Transcription (music), transc ...
,
Roger Daltrey
Sir Roger Harry Daltrey (born 1 March 1944) is an English singer, musician and actor. He is the co-founder and lead vocalist of the Rock music, rock band the Who, known for his powerful voice and charismatic stage presence. His stage persona ear ...
,
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) was a folk rock supergroup comprising the American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and the English-American singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by the Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Youn ...
, Chicago, Anita Baker, Julio Iglesias and
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...
.
As a full-time band member, Imboden's career has included
Honk, the Kenny Loggins Band (including "Who's Right, Who's Wrong" featuring
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...
,
the six-time platinum
Number One hit "
Footloose", and "I'm Alright" from ''
Caddyshack''), and Chicago. His career with Chicago has seen the release of thirteen albums, several of them certified as platinum.
Biography
Aside from a brief, early, move to Germany, Tris Imboden was raised in various beachside communities of
Orange County in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...
.
His formal training began from 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.
He currently resides in
Malibu, California
Malibu ( ; ; ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, about west of downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate, its strip of beaches stretching along the Pacific Ocean coa ...
, and on the island of
Kauai
Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands.
It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the 21st-largest island in the United States. Kauai lies 73 m ...
,
Hawai'i, where he is an avid
surfer.
Career
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".
Out of Newport Harbor High School, Imboden cofounded
Honk in 1970.
After recording some
demo songs, the band's first album was the soundtrack for the surf movie ''
Five Summer Stories'',
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.
Being a member of Honk provided Imboden with formative future career experience as the band built 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
Loggins and Messina was an American pop rock duo consisting of Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina, who achieved major chart success during the early-mid 1970s. Among their well-known songs are " Danny's Song", " House at Pooh Corner", and " Your M ...
,
Jackson Browne
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 30 million albums in the United States.
Emerging as a teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he had his ...
, and
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...
—and by opening
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
's concerts.
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
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...
, 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: ''
Caddyshack'' and ''
Footloose''.
From the end of his full-time duration with
Kenny Loggins
Kenneth Clark "Kenny" Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded with Jim Messina (musician), Jim Mess ...
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 the following: part-time work with Kenny Loggins; stage support for singer
Al Jarreau
Alwin Lopez Jarreau (March 12, 1940 – February 12, 2017) was an American singer and songwriter. His 1981 album '' Breakin' Away'' spent two years on the ''Billboard'' 200 and is considered one of the finest examples of the Los Angeles pop and ...
; and "Queen of Funk-Soul",
Chaka Khan
Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan ( ), is an American singer. Known as the " Queen of Funk", her career has spanned more than five decades beginning in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of ...
.
In 1986, he performed drum set overdub sessions for Neil Diamond's ''Headed for the Future'' album. This album provided a venue for Imboden's studio session collaboration with a then-member of Chicago,
Bill Champlin
William Bradford Champlin (born May 21, 1947) is an American singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter. He formed the band Sons of Champlin in 1965, which still performs today, and was a member of the rock band Chicago (band), Chicago from 1 ...
.
In 1988, he was a studio session player with former member of Chicago, bassist/lead vocalist,
Peter Cetera, on Cetera's solo album titled ''One More Story''.
In 1990, his career reshaped by joining the multi-platinum
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. With the departure of founding drummer
Danny Seraphine, Imboden joined the band as the full-time drummer
in time for the band's 1991 release titled ''
Twenty 1''.
As an integral part of Chicago for the latter half of the band's -year total career, Imboden would contribute to twelve Chicago records, and to tours alongside
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...
,
Earth, Wind, & Fire, and
The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band formed in San Jose, California in 1970. Known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their vocal harmonies, the band has been active for over five decades, with their greate ...
. Since 2012, his drum set was accompanied by Chicago's newest full-time member, veteran
auxiliary percussion
The percussion section is one of the main divisions of the orchestra and the concert band. It includes most percussion instruments and all unpitched instruments.
The percussion section is itself divided into three subsections:
* Pitched percus ...
ist
Walfredo Reyes, Jr.
Discography
Videography
Equipment
Tris Imboden currently endorses and uses the following products:
*Groove Juice Cymbal Cleaner
*
DW drums, hardware and pedals
*
Gibraltar
Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
drum racks
*
Remo
Remo Inc. is an American musical instruments manufacturing company based in Valencia, California, and founded by Remo Belli in 1957. Products manufactured include drum kits, drumheads, drums, and drum hardware, hardware, and various percussio ...
drum heads
*
Paiste
Paiste (English pronunciation: , ) is a Switzerland, Swiss musical instrument manufacturing company. It is the world's third largest manufacturer of cymbals, gongs, and metal percussion. is an Estonian language, Estonian and Finnish language, ...
cymbals
*
Vic Firth
Everett Joseph "Vic" Firth (June 2, 1930 – July 26, 2015) was an American musician and the founder of Vic Firth Company (formerly Vic Firth, Inc.), a company that makes percussion sticks and mallets. He was also known for his association ...
drumsticks
*Beato Bags
*
Latin Percussion
{{for, the company, Latin Percussion
Latin percussion is a family of percussion, membranophone, lamellophone and idiophone instruments used in Latin music.
Instruments Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican styles Folkloric and Santeria
* Trap drums
* Abaku ...
References
Discography
Videography
External links
*
*
*
Tris Imboden InterviewNAMM Oral History Library (2020)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Imboden, Tris
1951 births
Living people
American rock drummers
American performance artists
American male composers
American session musicians
Musicians from Orange County, California
Musicians from Malibu, California
20th-century American composers
American harmonica players
21st-century American composers
Chicago (band) members
Firefall members
American expatriates in Germany
20th-century American drummers
American male drummers
American jazz drummers
21st-century American drummers
Jazz musicians from California
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians
Drummers from California