{"id":18548,"date":"2024-08-20T16:28:12","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T20:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=18548"},"modified":"2024-08-20T16:28:13","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T20:28:13","slug":"all-star-kelsey-returning-to-his-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/20\/all-star-kelsey-returning-to-his-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"All-Star Kelsey returning to his roots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Sweetwater All-Stars come to Decatur for a concert, as they will do Thursday for the next-to-last show in the Chamber’s Summer Concert Series, for one member of the band it’s always something of a \u201chomecoming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Kelsey, who blasts a mighty trumpet for the All-Stars, was born and raised in Fort Wayne, but he seemingly has as many relatives around here as a Baker or an Amstutz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Or a Noll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett’s mother, the late Thelma Noll Kelsey Alexander, was born in Pleasant Mills. She had 15 siblings!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His late father was Ned Kelsey. Marilyn Noll Young is his aunt and among cousins Brett can remember \u2013 \u201cI’ve lost count of how many first cousins I have,\u201d he will tell you \u2013 are Janelle Young, Keith Young, Decatur Mayor Dan Rickord, Elaine Rash, Kip Massoth and … well, he says there is a Sue but he can’t recall her last name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett’s life has been all Fort Wayne \u2013 and music!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Maplewood Elementary School, Kelsey moved on to Kekionga Middle School, and it was at the latter where he went to a musical instrument tryout session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the students attending were able to try out different instruments to see if they would like to learn one,\u201d Brett remembered. \u201cI selected the trumpet. I don\u2019t recall why but maybe because it was obnoxiously loud!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He soon put the trumpet to use in the school’s concert and pep band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving on to Elmhurst High School, Kelsey played in the orchestra, concert band, jazz band and marching band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a short stint at IUPU (now PFW) in Fort Wayne, he enlisted in the Marine Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music was still playing a major role in his life as, following boot camp, he attended the Armed Forces School of Music in Virginia. After graduating, \u201cthey flew me to Honolulu, Hawaii, where I was stationed with the band at Marine Barracks Pearl Harbor,\u201d Brett recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After three years in the Marines, Brett says he worked several non-music-related jobs, \u201cbut have always continued playing in many local bands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to playing with the Sweetwater All-Stars since their inception nearly 10 years ago \u2013 by the way, he’s employed at Sweetwater \u2013 Brett has his trumpet going with a trio known as the Primetime band and also with the Three Rivers Big Band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All three bands play at least monthly at the Clyde Club Room in Fort Wayne, he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So music has been a part of Brett Kelsey’s life for a long, long time, getting its start way back there in Pleasant Mills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com When the Sweetwater All-Stars come to Decatur for a concert, as they will do<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[58,15],"class_list":["post-18548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}