Black Ambience Before André 3000: The Secret History of African-Americans in Ambient Music

Name: Black Ambience Before André 3000: The Secret History of African-Americans in Ambient Music
Start: 2025-09-11T18:30:00-07:00
End: 2025-09-11T19:30:00-07:00
Location: San Francisco Public Library

Schedule

Thu Sep 11 2025 at 06:30 pm to 07:30 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

San Francisco Public Library | San Francisco, CA

A New Music History Lecture with Mark Montgomery French
Join us for 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗔𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲́ 𝟯𝟬𝟬𝟬: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻-𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰, a lush, immersive, and often surprising journey through the forgotten soundscape of Black experimentalism.
Featuring: Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, Laraaji, King Tubby, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, KMRU, and more!
Before André 3000’s flute wandered into ambient territory, Black artists had already been shaping the genre from its quiet edges—crafting deeply spiritual, spatial, and sonically radical works that defied easy categorization. Music historian and ambient composer Mark Montgomery French uncovers this under-recognized lineage, connecting the dots between cosmic jazz, tape loop meditations, electronic church music, dub’s echo chambers, and sound art rooted in resistance.
Streaming platforms and genre silos have long erased Black presence from ambient and experimental catalogs. This presentation sets the record straight—tracing a lineage of Black ambience that is mystical, political, meditative, and deeply felt. Expect sonic revelations, hard truths, and a few jokes along the way.
BIO
San Francisco-native Mark Montgomery French is an award-winning film composer with the group Spiky Blimp, Director of Audio Visual Ministries at Glide Memorial Church, host of the YouTube music review show “Still Got It” and the podcast “All Your Favorite Music is (Probably)…”, and the manager and touring bassist of critically acclaimed queer country band Secret Emchy Society. He’s recently released his ambient protest album, 𝙏𝙝𝙮 𝙉𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙡 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙂𝙤𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝘿𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙇𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙒𝙞𝙣𝙚. He’s also a music historian noted for his talks All Your Favorite Music is (Probably) Black, Unsung Women of Music, Prince as a Revolution, Black Country Before Beyoncé, and The Completely Abridged History of East Bay Music. He was formerly the co-leader of the ’90s progressive funk band Endangered Species.
Follow Mark at beacons.ai/mmfrench