Sioux Falls native jazz crooner returns from California to sing with symphony

What good is melody, what good is music
If it ain’t possessin’ something sweet?
Nah, it ain’t the melody and it ain’t the music
There’s something else that makes this tune complete

If you recognize those lyrics from the legendary jazz standard, “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” then you and Luke Carlsen share a love for big-band music.

But can you recite them all? Sing them in the fashion of the great crooners of the past century? Put a spin on them that makes them your own?

Carlsen can. He does so when he performs with his band, the Fresh Rhythm, offering audiences a big-band sound with a “youthful modern twist that’s really cool,” according to music producer Claytoven Richardson.

He has shared his talent in venues as diverse as Disneyland and Los Angeles nightclubs, which is where you’ll find him most often. This Saturday, however, the Sioux Falls native will croon 18 songs in an evening called “Songs of Love” with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra sitting in for his usual band. “It Don’t Mean a Thing” will be part of the evening.

Carlsen, the son of Chris Carlsen and Carol Carlsen, both of Sioux Falls, left for California after graduating from Lincoln High School. He enrolled at Chapman University in Orange after his mother showed him an article about the school in Newsweek magazine. The university offers 10 colleges, including one in the performing arts.

He left for his higher education with a strong base in music, thanks to private and public school instructors like Gretchen Starnes, Karen Dooley, Glenyta Hanson, Bob Carlson, James Johnson, Stacy Gross and Linda Conrad, Carlsen said.

Since graduating, Carlsen has focused on being a musician. In the early months of the pandemic, he turned to tutoring high school students preparing for pre-college tests and did what he calls “light computer programming” for a friend’s company. Now, however, his focus once again is music.

“I’m doing a lot of the gigs that I would do back then,” Carlsen said.

His time in Southern California has led to memorable experiences. A club named Vibrato, founded by famed jazz trumpeter Herb Alpert, is one of his favorite places to play. It is frequented by musicians such as John Mayer, Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones and Christina Aguilera. Private gigs offer a rewarding experience financially, and he has recorded several songs, working with Richardson.

While very much a man of his time — Carlsen turns 30 in January — he describes himself in a term reminiscent of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.

“I’m a crooner, a lower-voice baritone crooner. A jazz crooner,” Carlsen said. “I love good melody, melody’s first. Cole Porter or (George) Gershwin or the Beatles. I think those melodies especially out of ’50s and ’60s are the best.”

I’ve got you under my skin
I’ve got you deep in the heart of me
So deep in my heart that you’re really a part of me
I’ve got you under my skin

– “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”

Many swing and jazz tunes come from Tin Pan Alley music, written in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in New York City or for Broadway shows with large orchestras. Then it was mixed with New Orleans and Chicago jazz and popularized by Glenn Miller and other big-band leaders.

“The writer Frank Sinatra used the most was Cole Porter,” Carlsen said. “Sammy Kahn, Jimmy Van Heusen, they all wrote Broadway shows.”

The Beatles, even though they were rock musicians, show by their melodies they were listening to Gershwin and Porter along with rock ‘n’ roll legends like Chuck Berry and Fats Domino. The Beatles even recorded “Till There Was You” from the Broadway musical “The Music Man,” Carlsen pointed out.

“All that was influences by each other, and it all comes from jazz and blues,” he said.

A man of his times – “I have a smart phone, I have a MacBook, as far as daily living I don’t feel like a throwback,” Carlsen said – he still reveres these songs from the past. He also updates them, riffing on the focal melodies and reharmonizing chords with arrangers in his band.

Cheryl Koch first heard Carlsen sing when he played a child in a performance of “Les Miz.” Even then, his talent stood out. She eventually worked with him as his music instructor when he was in high school. When he was a high school junior, he won the state music teachers competition and traveled to Columbia, Missouri, to take part in the regional competition.

Koch describes Carlsen as “a gift to work with. He worked hard, but we also had fun.”

If anything tops Carlsen’s talent, it’s his kindness, she said. In 2018, Koch was undergoing treatment for cancer when her husband died unexpectedly. Carlsen came home for Christmas, and he spent all of Christmas Eve with his former instructor.

Carlsen turned to music producer/singer/songwriter Claytoven Richardson to orchestrate the 18 songs chosen for Saturday’s concert. Richardson, Carlsen said, has worked with some of the best vocalists over the years, including Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Carlsen also worked with his music director, Michael Seaman.

Richardson said he works with Carlsen because while Carlsen may sing songs made famous by Sinatra and others, he doesn’t sound like anyone else. Richardson prefers to work with people who are original in their sound and choice of music; Carlsen fits that description.

It’s very clear
Our love is here to stay
Not for a year
But ever and a day

– “Love is Here to Stay”

“He has, and this is kind of weird coming from a guy, but he has this really smooth, sexy kind of voice. I don’t think he really realizes the effect he has on folks when he’s singing. It’s great,” Richardson said.

Even though Carlsen performs with musicians offering big-band music, they offer an atypical version, Richardson said. “There’s a youthful, modern twist with it that’s really cool, and he adds his same uniqueness to his voice to that group. I’m into trendsetters and not trend followers, and he’s definitely a trendsetter.”

Two songs that Carlsen will perform Saturday stand out to Richardson. One is a bossa nova, and Carlsen brings a romantic vibe to it, Richardson said. The other, “The Hang,” revolves around the crazy, goofy things that happen to a band when the musicians are trying to get to a gig.

“It’s a song I had him and his band arranger work on,” Richardson said. “I really loved doing that because the music is really playful. It’s a way to share a band’s experience with the audiences.”

Delta David Gier and Thomas Fortner will direct the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra on Saturday. Gier’s son and Carlsen were best friends in high school, and Carlsen has kept Gier up to date as his career has progressed.

Carlsen’s voice stands on its own, and the family connection had nothing to do with engaging Carlsen to perform at the pops concert, Gier said. Instead, it’s the reputation Carlsen has made for himself. He gained wider public recognition when he appeared in a minor role as a big-band singer in the HBO remake of the detective series “Perry Mason” in 2020.

Gier described Saturday’s concert as “the American songbook,” featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole and other giants of the big-band era in the mid-20th century. The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra also will play instrumental numbers featuring George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein among others.

A love like ours
Could never die
As long as I
Have you near me

– “And I Love Her”

Gier has studied the scores the orchestra will play behind Carlsen’s voice. He described them as “good, solid arrangements.”

Koch, Carlsen’s former music teacher, will be in the audience at Saturday’s symphony. She said she never doubted that Carlsen would be successful as a professional singer.

“I never had any doubt,” she said. “It’s a tough field to get into, but he has the right combination of looks, discipline, talent, a tremendous amount of perseverance and luck. I knew he’d be successful.”

Carlsen is just looking forward to singing to people who first listened to him 15 and 20 years ago, when he was on stage at Lincoln High School, the Orpheum Theatre and other venues. He had thought about performing with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra since 2015 when Steve Lippia performed Sinatra tunes in a pops concert. He hopes this might lead to more performances with symphony orchestras.

First, though, is Sioux Falls, where Carlsen will offer a show with lots of swing, lots of jazz, part music and a few ballads.

“I’m thrilled to be asked to return to my hometown to do a gig like this and be trusted with the reins to give a good concert,” he said. “It’s really an honor.”

If you’re going

Tickets for the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra’s Saturday performance, “Songs of Romance,” featuring Sioux Falls native Luke Carlsen, can be purchased through the Washington Pavilion. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

Carlsen also will perform with symphony musicians Andrew Reinartz, Michael Seaman and Leo Taylor on Thursday at the DaDa GastroPub. Music begins at 8:30 p.m. The full dinner service and beverages will be available.