Abe Kesh
Abe Keshishian, known professionally as Abe "Voco" Kesh was an American disc jockey and record producer. He is best-known for discovering the seminal hard rock band Blue Cheer, and for producing their first two albums, Vincebus Eruptum and Outsideinside. He also produced the band's 1968 Top 10 cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues."
He worked as a DJ at the legendary KSAN San Francisco doing the overnight show.
He was born in Detroit, and died at the Marin Hotel in San Rafael, where he lived the final 14 years of his life.
Record production
Besides Blue Cheer, Kesh produced albums by Harvey Mandel, Graham Bond, Morning Glory, Linn County, The Savage Resurrection, Don Robertson, and others. Many of the artists he worked with originated or first achieved prominence in the San Francisco Bay area. He produced recordings for a number of labels, including Mercury, Philips, Fontana, Blue Thumb, Pulsar, and Janus.Kesh produced Chuck Berry's Live at the Fillmore Auditorium after Berry's release from jail in 1967. Steve Miller was part of Berry's band, and recalled that during rehearsals, "All of a sudden, Mercury Records says, 'This is great. We want to make a live album.' And a deal was struck that afternoon the day we were going to do the show. They brought in this funky little board to record it on. All of a sudden, this guy Abe Kesh shows up, who was the producer for Mercury. We're rehearsing and all ready to go when he takes Chuck Berry outside for 10 minutes before the show. Chuck comes back in and he's almost unconscious, like he's in slow motion. They went out and had a shot or something. We did four sets and we recorded the album. It came out pretty good."
In 1972, he produced the compilation album Lights Out: San Francisco , spotlighting music from the San Francisco region. The album, released on the Blue Thumb label, featured tracks by John Lee Hooker, Tower of Power, Sylvester and the Hot Band, Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks, and other artists.