Sidney Denis Preston (né Prechner, 16 November 1916 – 21 October 1979) was a British record producer, recording studio owner, radio presenter and music critic. He was particularly influential in the British jazz and associated skiffle scenes from the 1940s to the 1960s. Preston worked independently; he was not contracted to a particular record label and would often risk cutting a record before pitching for a deal. He has been described as "Europe's first independent record producer", and as "probably the most important figure to emerge from the British jazz business". Neil Ardley described him as "a rare Diaghilev like figure" who steered many of the key figures of the British jazz scene into the studio when nobody else would record them. Biography He was born Sidney Denis Prechner on 16 November 1916 in Stoke Newington, London, the son of Louis Prechner and Sarah née Hobsbaum. He changed his surname to Preston by deed poll in 1946. His cousin was the historian (and jazz critic) Eric Hobsbawm. From 1940, Denis Preston was a regular presenter of shows on BBC Radio, including Radio Rhythm Club and later Radio Blackbirds, on which he championed black American jazz performers such as Duke Ellington. After the end of the Second World War, in July 1945, he organised concerts featuring black musicians such as Freddy Grant, and also edited the influential Jazz Music magazine. He visited New York in 1948 for Decca Records, and while there heard Trinidadian musicians play calypso music. In January 1950, he supervised recordings made by calypso musicians Lord Kitchener and Lord Beginner at the Abbey Road Studios in London; the recordings were issued on the Parlophone label. Inspired by the example of Norman Granz to set up as an independent producer, he supervised recordings issued on the independent Melodisc label, including Lord Kitchener's "London Is the Place for Me"; recordings by Roaring Lion; early recordings by Humphrey Lyttelton with Freddy Grant as the Grant-Lyttelton Paseo Jazz Band; and pianist Mike McKenzie. He also produced recordings by pianist George Shearing and blues musicians Big Bill Broonzy and Josh White. In 1952, he produced recordings in London by American singer Marie Bryant, including Sam Manning's risqué calypso "Don't Touch Me Tomato", for the Lyragon label, an offshoot of Polygon Records. Preston continued to edit and occasionally present World of Jazz on BBC radio. He set up Lansdowne Productions in 1953. The following