Simon Rentner
For more than 15 years, Simon Rentner has worked as a host, producer, broadcaster, web journalist, and music presenter in New York City. His career gives him the opportunity to cover a wide spectrum of topics including, history, culture, and, most importantly, his true passion of music from faraway places such as Europe, South America, and Africa.
He is the host and producer for The Checkout, which showcases new music “on the other side of jazz” by some of the best artists on this planet including Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Hiatus Kiayote, Hermeto Pascoal, Kamasi Washington, Flying Lotus, Henry Threadgill, Cassandra Wilson, and many others.
Aside from working in media, he is a curator and producer of concerts in New York City at spaces such as The Beacon Theatre, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Town Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, The (old) Knitting Factory, Le Poisson Rouge, and Bryant Park. Some of the artists he’s presented include Hugh Masekela with Abdullah Ibrahim, The Punch Brothers, Cecil Taylor, Rosanne Cash, and the late Andrew Hill.
In addition to The Checkout, Rentner has hosted and produced content for NPR, PRI, WGBH, and WNYC. He’s won PRINDI awards for his news stories on The WBGO Journal. He’s produced long and short content for Jazz Night in America, Jazz at Lincoln Center Radio (hosted by both Ed Bradley and Wynton Marsalis), Toast of the Nation, Afropop Worldwide, Marketplace, and The Leonard Lopate Show.
His radio shows also feature celebrated voices and minds, not limited to music, such as, Jessica Lange, Ellsworth Kelly, Lee Friedlander, Mark Morris to name a few. He’s also covered the music cultural histories from Colombia, France, Sierra Leone, Mali, Argentina, Madagascar, Venezuela, Peru, Canada, and, naturally, the United States.
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Guitar heroes Mike and Leni Stern offer copious amounts of joy and West African vibes from their Manhattan apartment.
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Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn perform a duet from their home in Nashville.
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Over the past year, we caught up with jazz couples to get a behind-the-curtain look at life during quarantine, alone together.
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Tap dancer Michela Marino Lerman and bassist Russell Hall rattle our senses with a performance evoking the soundscapes of protests taking place in cities across America.
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Saxophonist Camille Thurman and drummer Darrell Green "Stand Tall" in their Alone Together Duet.
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Watch Blue Note recording artist Nduduzo Makhathini and vocalist Omagugu Makhathini perform a healing duet from their home in South Africa.
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Fabian Almazan and Linda May Han Oh serenade us with a piano and bass duet from their Harlem, N.Y., apartment.
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For Jazz Night in America's Alone Together Duets series, harpist Brandee Younger and bassist Dezron Douglas perform "Toilet Paper Romance" from their living room in East Harlem, N.Y.
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Watch violinist Regina Carter and drummer Alvester Garnett perform a duet from their home in New Jersey.
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Tim Lefebvre and Rachel Eckroth are an enigmatic couple who elude genre. Watch them perform a stripped-down duet from their LA home.