Happy 75th birthday card artifact launched today to premier impresario Ron Gaskin, b. 1949, by John Oswald towards last scenes and all incoming asteroids.
Ron Gaskin presented live music under the monikers Rough Idea Presents, What Next, and Next Wave, where his ear and intuition had a HUGE impact. His musical daring will resonate for years to come in the musicians and audiences who knew him. His stock in trade was experimental, creative, free and improvised music, but he wasn't limited by genre or definition. He was, first and foremost, a social convener, forging musical relationships that crossed genres and spanned borders, pairing people in masterful configurations that only he might imagine. As a radio host, programmer and producer his dulcet tones shared his vast musical knowledge and cool aesthetic to campus, community and pirate airwaves at multiple frequencies on the radio band, including CKLN (Toronto), CFRU (Guelph), Trent Radio (Peterborough) and Pirate 90 (Toronto Islands), with his shows AMFM, Huge Radio and Gaskin Calling. Ron approached everything with resolute principle, unconditional love, and a DIY ethic. In his early years he devoted his creative mojo to a number of endeavours, unrelated to the constant musical thread he followed throughout his life. Among them, he established an addiction support and outreach unit (The Trailer House) and an alternative asynchronous learning academy (The Free School) in Toronto, he ran a goat farm in Nova Scotia, and started Sangsara Natural Foods in Peterborough. Ron was a cherished friend to many. He embraced serendipity, celebrating the patterns and parallels in the everyday. He infused everything he did with style and precision. He was an impresario, an agent provocateur, and a good trouble maker. He was a poem texter and a master gift giver. Ron found treasure in the smallest things and the strangest sounds. He saw the invisible and heard the inaudible. He was funny, stubborn and mischievous. Always generous, with a twinkle in his eye. His faith in music, art and community never wavered. Ron was deeply connected to the community of Ward's Island (Toronto Islands), where he lived on and off after Cal's birth in 1993. He was the fire-keeper at many celebrations and supported Island artists, craftspeople and friends in countless ways. He produced music events there, at the St. Andrew by-the-lake Anglican Church, bringing performers from across the harbour and around the world to revel in the glorious acoustics of that sacred space.
2020
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