Presentation: Black Ambience Before André 3000

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.