Central Illinois Jazz Society Monthly Concert
Richard Drexler comes back to the Midwest from Florida each summer and we are lucky to have him for our concert. And he as managed to get his buddy John Campbell to join him. We don't know who will play bass or piano, as they are both fluent on each. But you can bet this will be an evening of superb jazz entertainment. Our house band opens at 6PM, and the duo plays 7:15-8:30PM. And come see our new venue with lots of room. See CIJS.org for more information. Or Call 309-243-1582
Here is detailed info on the artists.
Richard Drexler is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer/arranger from
Bloomington-Normal IL who since 1985 has lived in central Florida. After 12 years at the University of Central Florida 4 years at Valencia College as adjunct Jazz Studies
faculty, he has moved into a full-time role at UCF (which awarded him their first masters degree in music composition). He has played on around 200 recordings, piano in the Woody Herman Orchestra for over 20 years, bass in trios of Kenny Drew Jr., Dick Hyman and others, and music as his livelihood his whole adult life. Richard has toured for 16 years with electric bassist Jeff Berlin, and subs in 11 Florida orchestras on 7 instruments, plus in groups as diverse as Cheap Trick, Little Anthony & the Imperials
and Saigon Kick; singers he has worked with include Mose Allison, Karrin Allyson, Tony Bennett, George Benson, Diahann Carroll, Vic Damone, Bob Dorough, Connie Francis,
Amy Grant, Al Jarreau, Frankie Laine, Kevin Mahogany, Idina Menzel, Mark Murphy, Freda Payne, Bernadette Peters and Mel Torme’.
His playing has been favorably reviewed in Down Beat, Jazz Improv, Jazziz, Jazz
Times, and in dozens of online publications. Richard is profiled in The New Face of Jazz, a Billboard (Random House) book by Cicily Janus with forewords by jazz legends
Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Miller and Sonny Rollins, and has played with 40 of the other 100 featured players. “I have heard the future of Jazz, and it is Richard Drexler.” – Eric
Addeo, Joel Chriss and Co., Jazz Times Magazine, 2004.
John Campbell was born in Bloomington, Illinois. He studied piano privately as a youth, then attended University High School (Normal) (class of 1973) and, briefly, Illinois State
University in Normal, Illinois (where he was known nearly as well for his vibes work as for his piano playing) before moving to Chicago in the mid-1970s, then to New York in
the 1980s.
Campbell has worked with numerous jazz artists, including Terry Gibbs and Buddy DeFranco, Stan Getz, Eddie Harris, James Moody, Charles McPherson, and Clark Terry, and in the late 1980s was pianist for Mel Tormé.
Campbell has recorded as a soloist on Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 29 (Concord Jazz, 1993) and in various trios, such as After Hours (Contemporary, 1988) with bassist
Todd Coolman and drummer Gerry Gibbs, and Workin' Out (Criss Cross Jazz, 2001) with bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Billy Drummond. Campbell has recently moved
back to central Illinois after a long tenure in Los Angeles. Richard Drexler and John Campbell were classmates at University High School, where John introduced Richard to
jazz.
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