Can Global Biopharmaceutical Alliances Bring the World Closer Together?

While covering the American Society of Hematology (ASH) conference this past week, I was moved by the international flavor of the event. For a few days, the world seemed refreshingly small. And united. Science can do that. Sometimes. It’s not like the 30,000-some cancer researchers joined hands and sang a verse of “Kumbaya.” But it was darn close.

ASH is the largest blood cancer and blood disease conference in the world. I cover it each year. And it never fails to educate me and frankly light my fire. ASH reminds me just how much groundbreaking research is going on out there. Here's what matters: much of what you see at ASH will eventually make its way to your local cancer clinic and prolong, improve and save lives.

I always learn from this event, but there was something about this year’s ASH that stopped me in my tracks. I guess I never fully considered just how global and significant this thing really is, and what it can mean not only for cancer research but for the planet. ASH’s international impact was on glorious display as companies and scientists from 25 countries announced their latest data. And most of these scientists don’t just take their research home to their respective countries. They share their research, and clinical trials, with clinicians, and patients, around the world.

Drug companies now are literally global. Many of them anyway. And many of these companies from Europe, Asia and other corners of the globe now have a presence in North America, and vice versa, and are actually partnering with American pharma and American cancer hospitals.

Can pharmaceutical companies bring this world a little closer together via science? Well, one might argue that they’re already doing just that. Pharma has gotten some bad press in recent years. But let us please remember that drug companies are seeking and finding new treatments and cures every day.

And they are working together in a way they have never done before. Providing combination treatments and joint clinical trials in multiple countries is an undeniably good thing for patients and for the future of this wobbly blue sphere. It's harder for countries to fight when they are working together every day to find cures for cancer.

Here are some examples:

Daiichi Sankyo

Daiichj Sankyo, the pharmaceutical concern based in Tokyo, has an increasing presence in the US, and globally. Daiichi provides innovative products in oncology and much more to 20 countries around the world.

Daiichi is studying a new treatment for adult T-cell lymphoma (ATL), one of the most aggressive forms of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

At ASH, Daiichi announced encouraging early results for valemetostat, the company’s oral, potential first-in-class EZH1/2 dual inhibitor, in patients with relapsed/refractory ATL. Although rare, ATL occurs with greater frequency in certain regions including Japan. An often fast-growing form of T-cell lymphoma, ATL is associated with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1).

Treatments for ATL, which is a complex and heterogeneous disease, have to date been largely limited to systemic chemotherapy combinations, and patients who relapse often face a difficult prognosis.

Arnaud Lesegretain, vice president, oncology R&D at Daiichi Sankyo, explained to me during the ASH conference that research has shown that EZH1 and EZH2 are highly expressed or mutated in many blood cancers and are involved in suppression of genes that control tumor cell growth and proliferation.

Valemetostat has displayed preliminary activity in various blood cancers in preclinical models. Early clinical data is very encouraging, said Lesegretain, who noted that the response rate among ATL patients is 55 percent in 9 patients. “We have four patients that have remained on the treatment for more than 300 days,” he said. “But it is early.”

As Lesegretain explained, this is the only dual inhibitor in development, and it is an oral treatment. “This is not chemotherapy. Patients benefit and can stay on it. The safety profile appears to be manageable and acceptable,” he said.

In addition to the pivotal phase 2 trial in relapsed/refractory ATL, valemetostat is in phase 1 clinical development for several types of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, including ATL, peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) and B-cell lymphomas.

 

Trials are now enrolling patients in the U.S. and Japan. A phase 1 study is also underway with valemetostat in other blood cancers including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphocytic leukemia.

“Valemetostat is a novel targeted therapy that has demonstrated preliminary potential in several types of NHL including ATL, which represents one of the greatest areas of need among lymphoma patients, particularly in Japan,” Kaszushi Araki, DVM, PhD, valemetostat global team leader, Oncology Clinical Development Department, Oncology Function, Daiichi Sankyo, said last week at ASH.

Added Lesegretain, “We want to fulfill our commitment to science and technology and deliver first in-class treatments that can change the standard of care. It is early, there is still lot of work to be able to fulfill our vision, but we are on a very interesting journey to defeat cancer.” 

BeiGene

I have been writing about China for more than a decade. I have many friends and colleagues in China, I covered the Beijing Olympics for Newsweek, and I have covered China’s booming biopharmaceutical industry for the last several years.

I'm currently directing a technology and friendship initiative, The China Lymphoma Project, which will provide support and information to my friends in China who have been diagnosed with lymphoma and their families.

Among the most significant pharmaceutical companies in the lymphoma space in China is BeiGene, a company that began with a handful of scientists in Beijing and is now a global entity with a large presence in the United States. 

BeiGene’s slogan? We have no borders.

BeiGene just announced last month that the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted accelerated approval to BeiGene’s lead cancer drug, Brukinsa (zanabrutinib), for adult patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) who have received at least one prior therapy.

BeiGene also showed its presence at ASH with new data on its successful drug Brukinsa for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma.

In two oral presentations, the treatment demonstrated consistent safety and a high overall response rate. Brukinsa combined with BeiGene’s investigational anti-PD-1 antibody tislelizumab in patients with previously treated B-cell malignancies showed preliminary efficacy and was generally well tolerated.

Jane Huang, M.D., chief medical officer, hematology at BeiGene, said the trial results demonstrated “robust clinical activity and a safety profile consistent with what we’ve observed to date in our clinical trials, including safety data that supported the recent U.S. FDA accelerated approval in patients with previously treated mantle cell lymphoma.”

That's the world. Coming together. 

Two Worlds, One Dream: American Writer and Russian Rocker Share Lifelong Passion for the Music of Chicago

From Russia With Love: Leonid & Friends - The World's #1 Chicago Tribute Band

Growing up in the American Midwest in the early 1970’s, I developed an almost preternatural passion for Chicago, the rock band with horns whose dynamic, melodic songs resonated with me and made me want to become a musician and songwriter. Meanwhile, at the very same time, on the other side of the globe, Leonid Vorobyev was making the same musical discovery.

But in his hometown of Chita, a city in Eastern Russia affectionately known as the “Gateway to Siberia,” the options for musicians were limited. There was very little access to the outside world. There were no record stores. No guitar stores. No rock and roll on TV or on the radio. In fact, there wasn't a single electric guitar for sale in the vicinity. 

"In the Soviet Union in the 1970’s, American popular music was hard to come by," Leonid says. "You had to search for it."

But fate dealt Leonid a hand when a rock band from Moscow arrived in Chita one day to perform a rare local concert. Leonid attended, of course, and afterward introduced himself to the musicians.

“The drummer was a nice guy and asked me if I wanted to hear some cool records,” Leonid says. “He told me to come over to the hotel where the band was staying the next morning at 8 a.m., and he said 'bring your tape recorder' so that I could record the music and enjoy it.”

Leonid did not have to be asked twice. The next morning, he arrived at the hotel and proceeded to spend the day listening to and recording a bunch of rock songs of that era, including the first three albums from Chicago. At that time Chicago was one of the most popular bands in the world, but virtually unknown in Russia.

“Chicago was the drummer’s favorite band,” Leonid recalls, “We listened to each of those albums from start to finish. By the end of the day I was overwhelmed with all this music. It was this small window of opportunity for me to hear and record these songs.”

That day cemented Leonid’s resolve to pursue a career in music and learn how to play electric guitar. With no guitars in sight, he decided to build his own electric guitar from scratch.

“I found a copy of Popular Science magazine that explained how to make an electric guitar, complete with sketches,” Leonid explains. “In Russia in those days, if you were a musician you had to work really hard to get what you wanted. You really had to love it.”

Leonid found success in the music business. He spent 25 years as a music producer, arranger and session musician for a Moscow music studio. He also paid his dues playing in several casual rock bands in Russia.

His pet project, Leonid & Friends, a Chicago tribute band, gigged in and around Moscow. But it was no easy task to create a Chicago tribute band in a country that had very little awareness of the band.

Even in Moscow, finding horn players who could tackle rock, jazz and rhythm and blues was difficult. He managed to assemble a group of stellar musicians. But they were only performing sporadically, and while the word of mouth was good, they were not breaking any box-office records in Russia. No one in the band had any idea what was about to happen.

About five years ago, as Leonid approached his 60^th birthday, Leonid decided to bring the band together in the studio to record just one Chicago song. His choice was “Brand New Love Affair (Part I and II),” which starts as a slow jam then builds into a rocker. It happens to be my favorite song from the Chicago VIII album in 1975.

“It was just a gift I gave to myself,” says Leonid, who worked long hours on the song so that it sounded just like the original recording. Leonid’s painstaking attention to every musical detail was both inspiring for his band mates and exhausting.

During the recording session, Leonid decided to film an in-studio video of the band recording and performing the song. 

“I didn’t think anyone would ever see it, I wasn’t sure that anyone in America wanted to see a bunch of guys from Russia playing Chicago songs,” says Leonid, who also plays bass and piano, sings lead and backing vocals, transcribes all the musical sources, and produces, mixes, and masters all audio and video productions.

Much to the band’s surprise, the “Brand New Love Affair” video got a very warm reception. Just two weeks after it debuted online, the video was on Chicago’s website, which no one on the band expected.

People can criticize the Internet all they want, but in this situation it made the world a little smaller and more attainable for Leonid, who naturally decided to do a second video.

“I said ‘Okay, let’s record ‘Make Me Smile’,” says Leonid of the brassy powerhouse classic that is arguably Chicago’s signature song. And the rest is history. Both videos went viral.

Leonid’s unwavering love for music had finally paid off in an enormous way. His band is now in high demand and touring America. On Monday, Nov. 18, they stop for their second performance at The Belly Up in Solana Beach, Calif., one of my favorite San Diego area music venues. I will be among the happy fans in attendance.

Leonid’s little Chicago project is now the world’s most popular Chicago tribute band. There are a bunch of videos now on Youtube, including Leonid's take on "Beginnings," which is my favorite song ever written. 

But ironically, to this day no one in the band has actually seen Chicago in concert because the band has never played in Russia.

The 11-piece outfit of musicians from Russia and Ukraine now has more than 140,000 followers on Facebook. On the band’s YouTube channel more than 2.5  million people have viewed the band’s take on “25 or 6 to 4,” and more than 1.6 million for its recording of my very favorite Chicago song, “Beginnings.”

The band has more than 35 million views overall for its videos. And the group’s two albums of Chicago songs, “Chicagovich” and “Chicagovich II,” enjoy very positive reviews from fans on Amazon, CD Baby and Google Play. The songs are spot-on like the originals, but there still is a pure joy in the performances. The band is simply staggering. The musicianship is impeccable.

Developing an enormous fan base in America, Leonid’s ultimate dream of performing in America came true earlier this year the band played its first American gig in New York City, then performed several shows at The Village studios, the famous Los Angeles recording studio where artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Elton John and Steely Dan have recorded.  

I interviewed Leonid and his son, Roman Vorobyev, the hard-working manager of the band and congenial host at each of the band’s gigs, while the two of them were driving to their next gig.

I was immediately struck by Leonid’s willingness to listen as well as talk. I think it has helped him get where he is now. His entire journey in America has been a learning experience, he says, and a happy one.

The message the band conveys at every gig is that music brings people together and breaks down social, political and ethnic barriers in ways that virtually nothing else can. These are guys who love rock and roll, soul and jazz, all the elements Chicago had and has, and the bonding that takes place between the audience and Leonid’s band is something to behold. It is unique and special.

Perhaps what has been the most satisfying thing about this journey for Leonid is that several current and former members of Chicago are big fans of the band. They admire what Leonid and his mates are doing.

Robert Lamm, Chicago’s founding keyboardist, co-lead singer and chief songwriter, met with the band recently and attended a show.

Tris Imboden, the outstanding drummer who was with Chicago for nearly 30 years, sat in with Leonid & Friends at the Belly Up a few months ago.

“They are world-class musicians with an eye for detail that is almost frightful,” Tris says. “When I closed my eyes while I was playing with them at the Belly Up recently, it felt almost like it did when I would close my eyes and play along with those early Chicago records I used to listen to.”

Tris, who’s also played with such artists as Honk, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Michael Jackson, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Al Jarreau, adds that the members of Leonid & Friends “are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”

The band has also received support and friendship from Jon Huntsman, the former United States Ambassador to Russia and Utah governor, who also happens to be a keyboard player who had his own dreams of rock stardom when he was a high schooler  in Utah.

“Jon is a musician and he loves Chicago. He came to one of our shows,” Leonid says. “He has since played on stage twice with us, one time in a club in Moscow and one time on July 4th at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.”

Roman tells me that the reception the band is getting at every stop during the current U.S. has been overwhelmingly positive for the band. "None of this was expected, and we are all just enjoying it very much," Roman says.

In 2019, there are lamentably a lot of people who don’t know or don’t remember just how powerful and gifted a band Chicago was when those original seven musicians headed from the Windy City to Hollywood, where they recorded the group’s groundbreaking and now-legendary debut album Chicago Transit Authority.

That record, and the following records in the 1970’s, represented popular music it its very best. Chicago had it all:

A powerful and nuanced horn section in Lee Loughnane, Walter Parazaider and James Pankow; a brilliant drummer in Danny Seraphine; a stellar lineup of three lead vocalists; two superb songwriters in Robert Lamm and James Pankow; one of the world’s most underrated rock bass players and rock tenors in Peter Cetera;  and one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time, Terry Kath, a monster musician who Jimi Hendrix once said was better than him.

Chicago, who were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a few years ago simply blew audiences away. The first time I saw them was in the summer of 1974 at the Iowa State Fair. At that moment in time, Chicago was the most popular band in the world. It wasn’t even close. The band was charismatic and really connected with audiences and brought an energized blend of rock, jazz, soul and pop to the world.

And that feeling still lingers when you see Chicago today. They are still a great live act. But the pure, raw energy of vintage Chicago and the power of those songs really shine through at a Leonid & Friends show.

When performing, Leonid & Friends somehow manage to recapture much of that original Chicago magic in ways that one might not think is possible. It is the freshest, most astounding cover band I have ever seen.

And now they throw in a couple of non-Chicago (but compatible) songs in the setlist, including the Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” and Blood, Sweat & Tears’ “Spinning Wheel.”

For a lifelong Chicago fan like me, Leonid & Friends is a blessing. As someone who has loved Chicago all my life and who had the honor of recording one of my songs with Chicago co-founder Robert Lamm, seeing a group of mostly very young musicians from Russia and Ukraine enthusiastically playing Chicago’s songs warms my heart and fires me up.

Leonid & Friends are doing what any real tribute bands should do: They are effectively reminding the world what a kick-ass band Chicago was, and is. It is a testament to the music, and to Leonid’s resolute desire to pay homage to a band that gave him so much joy. Here’s hoping that for Leonid, this is only the beginning.

Leonid and his band perform on Monday night at The Belly Up in Solana Beach, Calif. Tickets are still on sale but I'm told they are going fast.

Breaking News: Positive New Survivor Numbers in Pivotal Phase III Clinical Trial of Treatment for Advanced Breast Cancer

In the last 25 years, the five-year overall survival rate for patients with metastatic breast cancer has sadly improved by less than 5 percent. 

Metatastatic breast cancer, also referred to as stage IV or advanced breast cancer, is a type of breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other locations in the body, including the bones, lungs, liver or brain.

Between 20 and 30 percent of all breast cancers diagnosed in the U.S. become metastatic, according to the National Cancer Institute. While some stage IV breast cancer patients survive this type of cancer for longer periods of time, patients typically live approximately two years. 

But the results of a new Phase III study are giving breast cancer patients new hope.

At the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019, Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, announced results today from its Monaleesa-3 clinical trial showing that its breast cancer drug, Kisqali (ribociclib) achieved statistically significant improvement in overall survival.

Kisqali, whose generic name is ribociclib, is one of several CDK4/6 inhibitors currently used in combination with hormone therapy to treat hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer in combination with fulvestrant, a so-called a selective estrogen receptor degrader.

The Kisqali combination demonstrated a significant improvement in survival with a 28% reduction in risk of death.  At 42 months, estimated rates of survival were 58% for Kisqali combination treatment and 46% for fulvestrant alone.

Kisqali in combination with fulvestrant has a median cancer progression-free survival of 33.6 months compared to 19.2 months in the placebo arm. The data shows that Kisqali is distinct from other inhibitors of CDK4, which is a major driver of breast cancer progression and inhibiting. Inhibiting CDK4 has been shown to block the growth of breast cancer cells

“Seen now in two Phase III trials, ribociclib [Kisqali] consistently and significantly prolongs life among premenopausal and post-menopausal women, and in combination with an aromatase inhibitor and fulvestrant,” says Dennis J. Slamon, MD, director of clinical/translational research, University of California, Los Angeles Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“These results arm oncologists with more evidence to make a confident treatment choice for their hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer patients.” 

Making A Confident Treatment Choice 

Approximately 155,000 individuals in the US are living with metastatic breast cancer. The Monaleesa-3 trial evaluated efficacy and safety of Kisqali plus fulvestrant in postmenopausal women with hormone-receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 negative (HR+/HER2-) advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

HR+/HER2 means the metastatic breast cancer is fueled by one of two hormones: estrogen or progesterone. HER2- means that you have normal amounts of HER2 protein in your tumors. 

The largest trial to evaluate a CDK4/6 inhibitor plus fulvestrant as initial therapy in postmenopausal women, Monaleesa-3 included women with no prior endocrine therapy, including those diagnosed from the beginning, women who relapsed within 12 months of adjuvant therapy, and women who progressed on endocrine therapy for advanced disease. 

Survivor and Patient Advocate Pleased With Trial Result 

Kelly Lange (right) has been living with metastatic breast cancer for 17 years. An advocate for patients, she has volunteered with METAvivor Research and Support since 2009 and has served as president and treasurer for the organization. 

“I am thrilled at the results of the MONALEESA-3 trial. Our community is desperate for life extending therapies,” says Kelly, who lives with her husband in Annapolis, MD. 

“This trial shows there is new hope for the HR+/HER2- subgroup of women and men living with metastatic breast cancer. Longer survival may allow a young mother to see her child go off it to kindergarten, or a grandmother to meet her first grandchild. We need more successes like this one for all of us living with this disease.” 

Oncologists Should Practice Evidence-Based Medicine 

Kisqali’s overall survival numbers are superior to what has been shown from Ibrance, the Pfizer drug that is currently the most prescribed CDK4/6 inhibitor on the market. 

John Tsai, MD, head of global drug development and chief medical officer at Novartis, says 
physicians should “practice evidence-based medicine” in their choice of breast cancer treatments for their patients.

“It comes down to physicians are used to using Ibrance,” says Tsai, adding that he is hoping this trial “will convince physicians to actually use ribociblib [Kisqali] versus the other agents.”

Says Susanne Schaffert, PhD, president, Novartis Oncology, “We are committed to helping give these women more life and are reimagining a world where metastatic breast cancer becomes a curable disease.”

Honk, the Beloved, Almost-Legendary 1970’s Southern California Rock-Pop-Soul-Surf Band, Reunites

Honk at the Troubador 1974

 

Tris Imboden’s rock and roll resume’ is the envy of most musicians. Best known as the drummer for Chicago, the legendary rock band with horns, for nearly 30 years, Tris was given the daunting task of replacing Chicago’s original drummer and founding member Danny Seraphine.

But Tris carved out his own niche in the band. Impressing both his bandmates and audiences with his drum chops, high musical I.Q., and relentlessly positive attitude, Tris was given the green light by the band’s founding members to just be himself and not worry about parroting Seraphine's familiar licks.

While with Chicago, Tris contributed to twelve of the band's records and to tours alongside such artists as The Beach Boys, Earth, Wind and Fire and The Doobie Brothers. But after 28 years of virtually constant touring, Tris decided it was time to get off the merry-go-round that is life as a member of Chicago, a band of road warriors that has been touring for literally 52 straight years.

“I finally decided it was time to spend some time off the road,” says Tris, who after leaving Chicago rejoined Kenny Loggins’ band for a handful of gigs before undergoing shoulder surgery. Today, Tris has relocated from Malibu to his new home in Cardiff in North San Diego and is simply enjoying life with his wife of two years.

But he is excitedly preparing for a very special one-off reunion gig this weekend with Honk, his first band, which is quite possibly the greatest music group you’ve never heard of.

Honk If You Love "Honk"

The origins of Honk, an eclectic, melodic rock and roll outfit that deployed elements of rock and roll, jazz, blue-eyed soul, acoustic pop and surf rock, can be traced back to the late 1960’s when Tris was a drum-loving surfer at Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, Calif.

While Tris was hitchhiking one afternoon on Pacific Coast Highway, fate intervened when the driver who stopped to give him a ride turned out to be Steve Wood, a Laguna Beach-based musician who had only recently graduated from Newport Harbor High himself.

Tris recalls, “I didn’t have a car yet, and those were the hippie days when everyone hitchhiked. Steve was on his way to set up his equipment at Cinnamon Cinder, the music club in Long Beach. I noticed immediately that he had a B3 [keyboard] in the back. We started talking, and I knew who he was, he had a band. There was a harp on the dashboard, so I picked it up I started playing, mostly Paul Butterfield stuff, and he said, ‘Hey, hey, you can play.’ We just hit it off.”

That meeting was the genesis of Honk, who quickly climbed the So-Cal music food chain, gigging at the top L.A. clubs from the Whiskey to the Troubadour, and recording albums with producers who’d worked with Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, the Beach Boys and Ike and Tina Turner.

Honk’s biggest coup was writing and recording the soundtrack to the popular, innovative surf film Five Summer Stories, directed by Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman.

The album was a hit, and the song Pipeline Sequence from the soundtrack touched a nerve in surfers worldwide. It was #1 in Hawaii for a month straight and received incessant airplay everywhere there was surf – from Australia to Southern California, where Honk was elevated to cult status among surfers.

Honk also became the darlings of the L.A. musician crowd, and in 1974 and ’75 the band toured the U.S. with The Beach Boys and opened concerts for Jesse Colin Young, Jackson Browne, and many others.

“Carl Wilson loved the band,” Tris says. “We also toured with Loggins and Messina, and we opened for Chicago at Balboa Stadium in San Diego. We sold out four or five nights in a row at the Troubador. We were on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. The band got pretty big, and musicians loved us. I remember that we initially opened for The Sons of Champlin, and eventually they opened for us.”

Honk enjoyed airplay on KLOS and KMET, the two top FM rock stations in Los Angeles, and was seemingly on its way to superstardom. But the music business threw the band a nasty curve.

Just before Honk’s album with Epic Records, a major label owned by CBS, was set to be released, the band got into a heated and public argument with a top executive at CBS. One member of the band, who asked for anonymity, was particularly perturbed with the record label’s decision to release Honk's cover of “Heat Wave,” the only cover song on the album, as the first single.

That conflict led to a confrontation literally on the night the label was showcasing the band. It pretty much sealed the deal and Honk never got the push they deserved from the label.

Tris recalls, “This was gonna happen, it was really gonna happen. We played at a CBS convention in Atlanta, we were the darlings of the convention, they had air horns with Honk on them, CBS had given the nod to honk, we were told by all the execs that we were on their list. Seven years of my life I had devoted to this band.”

Talk about Almost Famous! Honk had all the elements a band needed to have major success, but the corporate suits sealed their fate, for all the wrong reasons. Ah, the music business.

Moving On, But Never Forgetting

Honk subsequently dissolved and each of the members - Will Brady (bass and vocals), Craig Buhler (saxophone, clarinet, and flute), Richard Stekol (vocals and guitar), Beth Fitchet Wood (vocals and guitar), Wood (keyboards and vocals) and Tris - went on to other successes both in and out of the music business. But they never lost touch with each other.

“I moved to L.A., and because of Honk’s reputation for musicianship, I was doing pretty well moving up the ranks as session player,” recalls Tris, who in 1977 was hired as the full-time recording and touring member of the Kenny Loggins Band, a collaboration that off and on lasted 12 years and was recently revived.

While with Loggins, Tris wrote and performed the drum set arrangements for the popular 1980’s movie soundtracks Caddyshack and Footloose. Tris also worked with a then-member of Chicago, Bill Champlin, and in 1988 he was a studio session player with Peter Cetera, the former bassist/vocalist with Chicago, on Cetera's solo album titled One More Story.

Tris has also toured with, opened for and/or recorded with such artists as Al Jarreau, Crosby Stills & Nash, Neil Diamond, Chaka Khan, and Steve Vai, to name a few. 

Tris Imboden, rock drummer extraordinaire

But the biggest moment of Tris’s career came in 1990 when he accepted the job as the full-time drummer for Chicago in time for the band's 1991 release titled Twenty 1. The coveted Chicago gig made him famous and took him literally across the globe. Tris has no bitterness about his years in Chicago. He has great admiration for the band and always will. But it was time to go.

“I know just how fortunate I am. I am so lucky. But I missed my daughter’s childhood. I missed the passing of my mother. I missed so much while I was on the road,” he says. “I had so many wonderful experiences and enjoyed so many perks, and all the places I’ve seen and people I’ve met. But in the last few years, I was like, ‘What am I doing?’ I just became unwilling to sacrifice the rest of my life to Chicago. I want to live.”

Beating Cancer, Loving Life

Tris says he probably should have gotten off the Chicago train back in late 2008 when he was diagnosed with stage 3A squamous cell lung cancer. “They gave me the stats, and said I had a 14 percent chance of making it even to five years,” Tris says. “I recently celebrated ten years. My new oncologist at Scripps in San Diego is calling it a cure.”

As horrific as his cancer diagnosis was, Tris says it opened his eyes and gave him a newfound appreciation for friends, for family, for music, for life.

“There’s always a gift that comes along with that diagnosis. It forces you to face your mortality, to look it right in the face,” says Tris, whose brother died of Burkitt’s lymphoma, a rare and sometimes deadly type of lymphoma. “My brother didn’t even make it to age 50, but I could not perform the eulogy because I was going through chemotherapy at the time."

Tris underwent radiation and chemotherapy and is now minus two lobes in his right lung.

“It was a seven-centimeter tumor, they had to shrink that before they could operate,” he says. “I’m amazed I didn’t leave the band after that experience. I will be forever grateful to the band. But I’ve got a theory about Robert (Lamm), Jimmy (Pankow) and Lee (Loughnane), which is that they would not know what do with themselves if they stopped touring, they’ve been doing it for so long. It’s been their reality since they were barely out of their teens.”

Tris Is Still A Chicago Fan

Tris has nothing negative to say about Chicago. No dirt. No bitterness. No anger. After all, when he joined, he was already a huge fan and he still is. 

“I saw the original Chicago band in 1968 at the Shrine Auditorium. They were opening for Procol Harum. They were this mostly unknown band no one even knew. I was with my girlfriend, and they were just an unbelievable band, with three horns, an amazing guitarist, incredible vocals. We were blown away.”

Tris immediately started asking people about this mystery band.

“I asked everyone, ‘Who are these guys?’ No one knew, because the record had not come out yet. But finally someone said ‘they’re called CTA, three letters.’ Someone said it stood for Chicago Transit Authority. I was a fan from that moment on. But if you had told me that night, ‘You are going to be their drummer,’ I would have said, ‘Right, and I am Napoleon’.”

Honk in the 90's

Chicago is in Tris's rear-view mirror. He is focused right now on the Honk reunion tonight. He says he treasures his lifelong association with his fellow members of Honk and adds that each of the members remain close friends. The band has reunited multiple times over the years, and each time they get together they are somehow able to recapture the positive vibe that Honk first demonstrated in the early 70s.

Honk will do it again tonight at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano in Orange County, where the band recorded a live album. Appropriately, the venue is just a short walk to a popular surf break.

“We never set out to be a surf band, but Steve and I were and are serious surfers,” Tris says.

The surf soundtrack, however, cemented the band’s reputation among water men and women and gave them a staying power that they all deeply appreciate. But you don’t have to be a surfer to dig Honk. The band doesn’t really sound much like Dick Dale or The Ventures or The Beach Boys, although the songs are superbly crafted, the guitar work is excellent, and the vocals are sublime. 

Anyone with a love for melodic rock, pop, soul and jazz from the early 1970s, arguably the most diverse and fertile era in rock music’s history, will appreciate Honk, whose onstage joy is palpable.

Regarding the enduring popularity in certain circles of a band that many have not heard of, and the level of success he has had ever since he was a high schooler, Tris is deeply grateful. He knows how many talented musicians there are out there who have never had the success he has had.

“I am so lucky, and so blessed. The work has been non-stop for me since I graduated from high school,” he says. 

Honk love!

As for Honk’s flirtation with fame, perhaps it’s better that it didn’t happen. After all, fame can be a destructive drug. It corrupts most people it touches. The fact that the band is so good and almost made it is what makes Honk so endearing. There was never really that loss of innocence that happens to seemingly every musician at some point in the journey.

Do the members of Honk wish they had four or five platinum albums under their belts? Sure. But they also appreciate the purity of this band, Tris says. These reunions are not about the money.

If you check out the show on Saturday, I guarantee you will have a good time. And hey, if you hitchhike to the gig, you just might meet someone on the way and create your own almost-legend.