I've been doing a little research on this and have used a DSN for an Excel file recently.
A couple of questions:
1) Does "I want to connect to Access directly" mean "I want to use a DSN-less connection"?
2) If you are
not trying to use a DSN-less connection, you will need to set up a Windows bridge. See the following: JDBC-ODBC bridge
ODBC-JDBC Bridge
3) If you
are trying to use a DSN-less connection, there are known issues with 64 bit operating systems. See this
thread:
DSN-less connections
Hopefully one of them addresses your issue!