NAT JOSEPH was both the founder of Britain’s first successful independent record company, Transatlantic Records, and a noted theatrical producer and talent agent. The common link between these careers was Joseph’s innate ability to recognise raw creative talent and make it flourish.

Joseph was born in 1939 in Birmingham. His father, Maurice Joseph, owned a scrap-metal business and died when Nat was nine. His mother raised him alone. The financial hardship they suffered later spurred Joseph on to succeed in business. He was educated at King Edward’s Grammar School for Boys and then awarded a scholarship to King’s College, Cambridge, to read English.

Joseph’s career in the record industry started in 1960 when he abandoned a teaching post at Columbia University to travel around the United States. He discovered countless blues, folk and jazz recordings on specialist record labels that were unavailable outside the US and on returning to England he started his own company to import them and Transatlantic Records was born. Having obtained agency agreements for a number of US labels he trudged around the record shops of Southern England carrying samples in carrier bags until business built up and he was able to open an office and take on staff. Using the capital generated from the imports Joseph eagerly started producing his own records.

Working with folk music enthusiast and producer Bill Leader, Joseph recorded the best and brightest performers on Britain’s burgeoning folk club circuit. Joseph travelled to Scotland and Ireland seeking out young artists to record and Transatlantic was soon at the forefront of the British folk music boom of the 1960s. Joseph, who had an astute ear and eclectic musical tastes, launched the recording careers of a diverse array of artists including the influential guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, Streets of London singer-songwriter Ralph McTell, the Irish traditional group the Dubliners, the Humblebums — which featured the individual talents of Billy Connolly and Gerry Rafferty, the prodigiously talented young guitarist Mike Oldfield, fiddle player Dave Swarbrick and the jazz-influenced folk group Pentangle.

Joseph had a mischievous sense of fun and the company often attracted controversy — one of its earliest successes was a series of sex instruction records with sexologist Keith Cammeron, which were to sell in large quantities and provide much needed funds for more speculative projects. Controversial American artists, such as Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, and the New York band, the Fugs, along with albums featuring comedian Lenny Bruce and the speeches of Malcolm X found a welcome home at Transatlantic after being turned away by the leading British companies.

Transatlantic continued to distribute a variety of leading American music labels, most notably Folkways, whose founder Moses Asch was an inspirational mentor to Joseph and whose seminal recordings of Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Big Bill Broonzy and Memphis Slim were eagerly snapped up by British fans.

When it came to Transatlantic’s own recordings Joseph’s stated policy was to record “whatever I liked”. And so he did, recording the poetry of Christopher Logue and Adrian Mitchell; the “godfather” of British blues musicians Alexis Korner; jazz singer Annie Ross; The Pasadena Roof Orchestra; the Idi Amin “radio broadcasts” of satirist John Bird; and the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band whose Floral Dance reached number two in the singles charts. The recordings of Scott Joplin’s piano rags by the pianist Joshua Rifkin (licensed from Warner’s Nonsuch label) enjoyed great success.When Gerry Rafferty left the Humblebums to pursue a successful solo career the rest of the group fell into disarray. Seeing a fresh opportunity, Joseph encouraged the group’s banjo player, Billy Connolly, to think about “singing less and telling more funny stories” — with the result that Joseph produced Connolly’s Solo Concert, a double live album of comic monologues, which was to make the comedian’s name and become Transatlantic’s biggest seller.

The success of Transatlantic throughout the 1960s became a template for the many British independent record companies that followed, most notably Virgin, Chrysalis and Rough Trade. Joseph took risks and backed his creative instincts. He was as encouraging and paternalistic towards his hard-working and spirited staff as he was towards the artists, and the company’s offices in Marylebone High Street often resembled a good-natured, if somewhat chaotic, family house perpetually stacked with boxes of records and constantly reverberating to the sounds of the latest musical discovery.

By the mid-1970s Transatlantic was facing a cashflow crisis which led Joseph to seek outside investment. In 1975 Granada acquired a controlling interest, with plans to build it into a big music company and for a while the future looked rosy. However, it quickly became evident that the slow pace of conglomerate bureaucracy was not well suited to the needs of a fleet-footed independent company. Two years later Joseph decided to leave.

Joseph had long been a passionate theatregoer and had often encouraged the record company to be involved in theatrical projects, such as the cast recording of The Black Mikado. And so, for his next venture, Joseph turned to the theatre and in 1978 set about becoming a producer and talent agent.

Through his theatrical production company, Freeshooter, Joseph first produced the anti-war play The Petition, written by Brian Clark, directed by Sir Peter Hall and starring Sir John Mills.

Freeshooter’s other productions included the UK production of the Off-Broadway hit musical The March of the Falsettos, and a touring revival of Godspell. Joseph produced three one-man shows with the actor Alec McCowan, the most successful of which was Kipling. Kipling and The Petition both transferred to Broadway, with the latter earning Tony nominations. Joseph also enjoyed success in producing touring musical stage shows for the very young, featuring children’s presenters from BBC Television’s popular Playaway.

Having been a long-time fan of the work of the playwright Arnold Wesker, Joseph approached him to become his sole agent, eventually representing him for more than ten years through his agency NJ Enterprises. Through putting together his own productions Joseph realised that stage designers and lighting designers were generally very poorly represented and as a consequence frequently undervalued and underpaid. In consequence he built up a stable of talented young designers, many of whom he represented straight from college. He later took on the representation of a number of noted directors and at one point had almost 30 clients on his books and yet managed to make each of them feel as if they were his only client.

Like Transatlantic, the agency acquired a reputation for signing the most original and creative talents and for carefully guiding individual careers. As a staunch supporter of regional theatre Joseph would always advise his young clients to spend as much time developing their craft in the regions as possible before he was prepared to let them loose on the West End or the important national companies.

Through his close association with the scenic design graduates from Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design, Joseph became Chairman of the Theatre Design Trust, responsible for restoring derelict theatres. He took to the task with his customary enthusiasm.

Sir Ian McKellen, who might have made his West End directorial debut with a Joseph production of a musical version of Henry V in 1972, had the project not been thwarted by lack of funds, fondly remembered him as: “a tenacious and canny businessman, but with the soul of a true artist”. Nat Joseph is survived by his wife, Sarah Brodie, and two sons.

Nathan Joseph, record company founder, theatrical producer and agent was born on July 23, 1939. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease and died of pneumonia on August 30, 2005, aged 66.