Multi-instrumentalist, composer/arranger and producer Richard Drexler, an Illinois native, has been based in Florida since 1985 and was on the road frequently with the Jeff Berlin Trio for twelve years.  A couple of long house pianist stints kept him busy for nine years in the Tampa Bay area, where he performed with many visiting artists.  More recently he has done some touring with the Woody Herman Orchestra and trombonist John Allred, among others.  He worked for years as bassist in the trios of pianists Kenny Drew Jr., Dick Hyman and Michael Royal, and is still regularly appearing as a bassist or pianist/vocalist in the jazz clubs of central Florida.  Singers he has accompanied include Mel Tormé, Tony Bennett, Veronica Swift, Frankie Laine, Bob Dorough, Mose Allison, Kevin Mahogany, Roseanna Vitro, Vic Damone, Al Jarreau, Connie Francis, Dena DeRose and Karrin Allyson.  He has been active in the studios, appearing on over two hundred CDs ranging from salsa to avant-garde to country and western to the thrash metal group Saigon Kick.  He assisted guitarist/composer/producer Richie Zellon on much of the Songosaurus label catalog, devoted to jazz fused with South American rhythms.  On these projects he recorded with Bob Mintzer, Paquito d'Rivera, Jerry Bergonzi, Gato Barbieri, Claudio Roditi, Alex Acuña and others.  Richard produced his first album of originals, Flaming Spirit, in 1978 with Dave Liebman, Tom Harrell, Steve laSpina and Clay Hulet.  The list of noted jazz musicians Richard has gigged with runs in the hundreds.  His playing has had very favorable reviews in magazines such as Jazz Times, Down Beat, Jazz Improv and Jazziz, and in dozens of online publications.  A major direction in his music has been combining classical music with jazz and Latin forms, as in his Songosaurus CD Señor Juan Brahms and arrangements of works by Mahler, Chopin and other composers.  He was one of just over a hundred musicians profiled in the Random House book The New Face of Jazz by Cicily Janus, and has performed with 45 of the others.  "I have heard the future of Jazz, and it is Richard Drexler", Eric Addeo, Joel Chriss and Company, Jazz Times Magazine, 2004.