Bread Punks

Co-founded by Christopher Salazar, Bread Punks is an NYC-based catering company with a motto that sums up their commitments: “In Crust We Trust.”

Keenyn Omari

Keenyn Omari, a multi-instrumentalist and producer born in Miami and raised in Atlanta, specializes in making the flute resonate like no other. Currently based in New York City, Keenyn’s music is dedicated to healing listeners on spiritual, mental, and physical levels. He has performed alongside notable artists such as Big Daddy Kane, Cleo Reed and Zacchae’us Paul, and he was recently featured on Jimmy Fallon.

Cleave Guyton

Cleave Guyton is a professional musician who plays the saxophones, flutes and clarinet. He has been fortunate to have worked with artists such as: Joe Henderson, Nat Adderley, Abby Lincoln, Sandra Reaves Phillips, Lionel Hampton, Spike Lee, Joe Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, The Mingus Big Band and many more. He is currently a member and lead alto saxophonist in the world renowned Lionel Hampton Orchestra, he has traveled the world with the orchestra extensively and has been a member in good standing since 1989. Mr. Guyton is also a member of the Spirit of Life Ensemble and has toured and recorded extensively with the ensemble.

Now that he has years of experience under his belt, his vision is to perform and record original compositions with his band and is looking forward to putting forth the finest expression of emotion through his music in his own inimitable style.

Mr. Guyton got a B.A. in Jazz Performance cum Laude from Berklee College of Music and an Associate’s of Arts in Science and Music Performance cum Laude from Suffolk County Community.

Cleo Reed

Cleo Reed is a sound composer, performer, and multi-disciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Their debut album Root Cause was released in early 2023 with an exclusive vinyl release from Vinyl Me Please and support from Bandcamp, Pitchfork, The Wire, and OkayPlayer, amongst others. In tandem with their debut, Cleo presented a self-directed performance art piece titled “Black American Circus” as a part of BRIC’s Artist-In-Residence program. Cleo has since performed the Black American Circus at Afropunk and the Brooklyn Museum. Cleo worked with Jon Batiste, developing software instruments for his “American Symphony” at Carnegie Hall. In addition, Cleo is a recipient of the 2022 NYC Women’s Fund for Media Music and Theatre, a fellow as a part of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem’s Jazz is NOW: Curatorial Fellowship and a selected composer as a part of the International Contemporary Ensemble’s “Call For ____” Commission Program, as well as a fellow in One Beat‘s global residency tour program. Cleo is an alumni of Harlem School of The Arts and a graduate of Berklee College of Music. At 19, Cleo Reed named themselves after Cleophus, their great-grandmother and a fellow Aquarius. Whether underground or academic, experimental or popular, they express musicianship guided by their radiance, femininity and cyclical traumas.

This year’s Midsummer Nights series is curated by rising jazz star and 2023-24 BKCM Jazz Leaders Fellow Melanie Charles, the founder of a collective whose name proclaims a mission: to Make Jazz Trill Again. Melanie has handpicked a lineup of artists who are expanding the borders of contemporary jazz in NYC, infusing elements of R&B, hip-hop, Latin, African and experimental musical traditions across four concerts that offer something for music lovers of all ages and backgrounds.

There are very few artists whose sound can capture the sentiments of a generation. The Brooklyn-born-and-raised Melanie Charles is one of these artists. Over the past few decades, she has made a name for herself through dynamic engagements with jazz, soul and R&B. Her bold genre-bending style has been embraced by a range of artists including Wynton Marsalis, SZA, Mach-Hommy, Gorillaz and The Roots. In 2021, she appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk and stunned with her eclectic style. Through it all, she has remained committed to making music that pushes listeners to consider new possibilities — both sonically and politically. “Make Jazz Trill  Again” a project that she launched in 2016, demonstrates her allegiance to everyday people, especially the youth, and is focused on taking jazz from the museum to the streets. “I love jazz, I really fell in love with it deeply. But I was interested in young people interacting with it,” Charles says. The album Y’all Don’t (Really) Care About Black Women is reflective of Charles’ tremendous versatility and imagination as an artist, but also of her deep care for community.