Approximately a half century ago, I met a young man from Berkley by the name of Jono Korchin.  He was a bright tough in-your-face kind of guy.  At the time the two most important things in his life were photography and music.  I’m pretty sure there wasn’t anything in music he didn’t know – in my opinion not so much in photography.  He was okay but needed a little work.  Because he was based in the San Francisco area and I was based in the New York area we only got together several times a year.  Over a couple years we became close friends. To be honest I’m not the easiest going person in the world but JK always found a way of getting to my better side.© Jo

I flew out to the coast in the early 80’s & Jono picked me up in a Mercedes and there was this weird box near the dashboard.  He put in an address on Cedar Alley and this magic box took us right there – the back way.  Cedar Alley was a half city block long & my close friend Mike Phillips had a studio/home there.  When I asked Jono what just happened he explained he was working on the beginning of GPS.  Wow!  To say that Jono was ahead of most of us, as the truth be known he may have been 20 or 30 years ahead of most of us.  He had a concept for music where people could procure one song at a time.  He got an appointment with Apple and met with the CEO Gil Amelio.  They listened but rejected the concept of the one dollar song.  Yet, 3-4 years later they came out with IMusic.  Strangely enough you could buy a song for a dollar.  Hmm…wonder where they got the idea.  Considering I was born in Greenwich Village after the end of WWII there was a coffee shop or two on every block where there was poetry, music, off broadway plays etc.   Jono came up with another idea and took it to Starbucks.  It was called the MusicBox.  Again it was turned down.  I don’t have to tell you where Starbucks went after that.  Jono came into New York to have a meeting with the mayor to be, Michael Bloomberg a billionaire. Are you sitting down?  Bloomberg blew him off and threw him out – could be the fact he was dressed at the time  a little like a Pirate as I recall.  Possibly his attire would have been more acceptable in California but not so sure in a New York business meeting.  But being thrown out by Michael Bloomberg wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.  I had a meeting with Roger Penske and 12 minutes into the meeting he threw me out.  You have to understand something if you’re going to get thrown out of a meeting it’s a great thing to be thrown out by a billionaire unless of course his initials are…. Shit never mind.  In the truest sense Jono was a true visionary.  At the foundation, JK met a beautiful strong, and extremely intelligent woman by the name of Season who took him to the next level.  Season and Jono became parents of two extremely bright lovely caring sons who loved music and ultimate Frisbee. He became a full time father to end all fathers.  He was there 24/7 for Julian and Elias.  He loved both of them on a plane most people could not comprehend.  They will carry that love forever. I consider it an honor to have been a friend of Jono’s.  I know he is traveling on another plane of consciousness probably the same 20 or 30 years ahead of everyone else.  Remember Life is not a Rehearsal and you only have one take so make the best of it as Jono did.