Denis Preston

Sydney Denis Preston (* 1916, † 1979) was a British music producer and jazz critic. He is known as " Europe's first independent record producer ."

Life and work

In 1956 he founded in London Lansdowne Studios (including the border is closed Lansdowne Label Records). In the same year he produced the Lyttelton Humphrey Toningineur Joe Meek plate Bad Penny Blues for the label Parlophone. After Meek had left Lansdowne Studios in 1960, he founded his own recording studio in Preston model.

In the early 1960s Preston worked for EMI in the Columbia label. Besides most of the aforementioned musicians, he now also produced Ken Colyer and Mike Cotton. Preston's productions but were not limited to traditional jazz, but ranged from folk to jazz to flamenco Modern Music. He produced Neil Ardley, Jack Elliott, Roger Whittaker, Cleo Laine, Joe Harriott and Stan Tracey as well as also the influenced by African and Indian music artist Kofi Ghanaba and Amancio D' Silva.

After his death in 1979, the Sunday Times praised in her obituary Preston as " perhaps the most significant person who has emerged from the British jazz business." He was the cousin of the historian ( and jazz critic ) Eric Hobsbawm.