Carl Riseley (born 21 December 1982) is an Australian jazz and pop music singer.

Early life and career origins

Born on the Gold Coast in 1982, Riseley started out playing the

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a so ...

, and progressed to the

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...

when he was sixteen. Riseley joined The Royal Australian Navy band in April 2003, as a trumpeter. His singing career began in late 2003 when the Navy Rock Band were deployed on HMAS ''Tobruk'' to tour around Asia & Australia, but did not have a singer. The vacancy was filled by Riseley, who has remained a vocalist. During his time with the Royal Australian Navy, Riseley was deployed in the Solomon Islands, and played for the troops in Iraq on New Year's Eve in 2004 and 2005.

Performing and recording career

In 2007, Riseley tried out for the fifth season of ''

Australian Idol ''Australian Idol'' is an Australian singing competition, which began its first season in July 2003 and ended its initial run in November 2009. As part of the ''Idol'' franchise, Australian Idol originated from the reality program '' Pop Ido ...

''. When he failed to progress into the top 12 on the basis of viewer votes, he was given a "wild card" entry. He was sometimes criticised for remaining steadfastly within his style of swing, jazz and big band, but progressed until his elimination as one of the top three. He was signed by Mercury Australia, and an album of

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song relea ...

s, titled '' The Rise'', was released on 26 April 2008, debuting and peaking at No. 5 on the

ARIA Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

. His second album, ''