Mark Montgomery French

@mmfrench.bsky.social

Composer, Musician, Music Historian, Podcaster. Listen to my ambient protest album ๐™๐™๐™ฎ ๐™‰๐™–๐™ซ๐™š๐™ก ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™– ๐™‚๐™ค๐™—๐™ก๐™š๐™ฉ ๐™๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐˜ฟ๐™ค๐™š๐™จ ๐™‰๐™ค๐™ฉ ๐™‡๐™–๐™˜๐™  ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™’๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™š. https://beacons.ai/mmfrench

๐Ÿ•Š๏ธ Yesterday was wonderful. The first time I saw saxophonist Eddie M. was on Princeโ€™s Purple Rain Tour. The second time was yesterday, when he came to work and soloed on โ€œI Would Die 4 Uโ€. He was also on a panel I moderated on music and mental health, available here: www.youtube.com/live/lfGa_1o...

26.07.19 "Take a Breath" Panel on Music and Mental Health, featuring Eddie M.

YouTube video by Glide Memorial Church

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Hola! This Sunday, Iโ€™ll be moderating ๐™๐™–๐™ ๐™š ๐˜ผ ๐˜ฝ๐™ง๐™š๐™–๐™ฉ๐™, a panel discussion about music and mental health, with legendary Bay Area saxophonists Eddie M. (Prince), Dave Ellis (RatDog), Jessica Jones (Don Cherry), and Howard Wiley (E-40). This event is also FREE! Reserve your space here:ย bit.ly/4yhfsfn

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This Saturday, I have the honor of moderating a panel on Arts and Ministry at City of Refuge, in partnership with Glide Memorial Church. Then Grammy-winner Linda Tillery will lead a workshop called โ€œMusic of the African Diaspora.โ€ This is a free event! Tap here to save your space: bit.ly/4eTepLp

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Sunday at The Freight! FIGHT THE POWER is aย musical and visual tribute to MLK, featuring reimaginings of classic Civil Rights-focused songs from the โ€™60s through today. Along with the cream of Bay Area musicians, co-curator Zoรซ Ellis will sing, and Iโ€™ll be narrating. Get tix now at link in bio.

๐Ÿ’ซ ๐™’๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™ž๐™› ๐™ข๐™ช๐™จ๐™ž๐™˜ ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ช๐™ก๐™™ ๐™จ๐™ก๐™ค๐™ฌ ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ข๐™š? ๐Ÿ’ซ ๐ŸŒ’ Arise, My Darling ๐ŸŒ˜ This is a spell for stillness, a dream in slow motion, a rising. From my ambient album ๐™๐™๐™ฎ ๐™‰๐™–๐™ซ๐™š๐™ก ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™– ๐™‚๐™ค๐™—๐™ก๐™š๐™ฉ ๐™๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐˜ฟ๐™ค๐™š๐™จ ๐™‰๐™ค๐™ฉ ๐™‡๐™–๐™˜๐™  ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™’๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™š, Let it take you. Link in bio. ๐ŸŽง #AmbientMusic #Dreamscape #SlowArt #Soundscape #ExperimentalMusic

This week, country act Gavin Adcock gave his opinion about Beyoncรฉโ€™s album outselling his own: โ€œThat s--- ainโ€™t country music, and it ainโ€™t ever been country music.โ€ Learn more than Gavin at my talk ๐˜ฝ๐™ก๐™–๐™˜๐™  ๐˜พ๐™ค๐™ช๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™ง๐™ฎ ๐˜ฝ๐™š๐™›๐™ค๐™ง๐™š ๐˜ฝ๐™š๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™˜๐™šฬ: July 19 at Fremont Public Library. www.facebook.com/events/21491...

Black Country Before Beyoncรฉ: The Secret History of African-Americans in Country Music

Music event in Fremont, CA by Mark Montgomery French, Composer and Mark Montgomery French on Saturday, July 19 2025

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๐ŸŸฃ In honor of #Prince's #birthday today, you can watch my copyright-violating talk "Prince as a Revolution" for free on my Patreon page ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—น๐˜† ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฒ ๐Ÿณ! If it inspires you to support me through Patreon, thanks in advance. www.patreon.com/posts/see-my... #learnsomethingnew #theartist #musictalk

โ˜‚๏ธ See my Prince talk before itโ€™s taken down by โ€œthe man.โ€ Seriously! | Mark Montgomery French

Get more from Mark Montgomery French on Patreon

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๐™๐™๐™ฎ ๐™‰๐™–๐™ซ๐™š๐™ก ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™– ๐™‚๐™ค๐™—๐™ก๐™š๐™ฉ ๐™๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐˜ฟ๐™ค๐™š๐™จ ๐™‰๐™ค๐™ฉ ๐™‡๐™–๐™˜๐™  ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™’๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™š is available everywhere. #Ambient music for contemplation, resistance, and recovery. Let the string quartet drift into dub. Let gamelan bells guide you inward. ๐ŸŽง Listen & share at link in bio. #NewMusicFriday #AmbientMusic #Soundscape

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๐ŸŒŒ Join me at Dark Garden on June 12 for an exclusive listening party of my new ambient album: ๐™๐™๐™ฎ ๐™‰๐™–๐™ซ๐™š๐™ก ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™– ๐™‚๐™ค๐™—๐™ก๐™š๐™ฉ ๐™๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐˜ฟ๐™ค๐™š๐™จ ๐™‰๐™ค๐™ฉ ๐™‡๐™–๐™˜๐™  ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™’๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™š A 35-minute suite of strings, dub, gamelan & noir jazz โ€” with immersive visuals & a live Q&A. ๐Ÿช‘ VERY limited seats. ๐ŸŽŸ๏ธ RSVP now: bit.ly/goblet-at-dg

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๐ŸŽง Before my new ambient album ๐™๐™๐™ฎ ๐™‰๐™–๐™ซ๐™š๐™ก ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™– ๐™‚๐™ค๐™—๐™ก๐™š๐™ฉ ๐™๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐˜ฟ๐™ค๐™š๐™จ ๐™‰๐™ค๐™ฉ ๐™‡๐™–๐™˜๐™  ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™’๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™š drops in 4 days, enjoy a selection of my previous ambient work. ๐ŸŽ›๏ธ Listen with headphones at link in bio. #AmbientMusic #ModernClassical #ExperimentalMusic #JazzNoir #Soundscape #MarkMontgomeryFrench #Artist

๐Ÿ•ฏ๏ธ Pre-save now: ๐™๐™๐™ฎ ๐™‰๐™–๐™ซ๐™š๐™ก ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™– ๐™‚๐™ค๐™—๐™ก๐™š๐™ฉ ๐™๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐˜ฟ๐™ค๐™š๐™จ ๐™‰๐™ค๐™ฉ ๐™‡๐™–๐™˜๐™  ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™’๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™š Out June 5, this album is ambient meditation through the lens of resistance and recovery. String quartet. Dub. Gamelan. Noir jazz. Itโ€™s music for headphones and healing. ๐ŸŽง Pre-save via link in bio. #AmbientMusic #IndependentArtist

It was just one of those days when I, the choir I road manage, and 200 strangers ended up singing deep listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros's "The Tuning Meditation" with Grammy-nominated conductor Christopher Rountreeโ€ฆwith no planning whatsoever. It was glorious!

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โ™€โ™ซ โ€ข Did you know that less than 3% of major label record producers are female? Come celebrate Womenโ€™s History Month with my talk โ€œ๐”๐ง๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ง๐  ๐–๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ง ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Œ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐œ,โ€ March 27 at Lafayette Library. Itโ€™s a humorous historical talk that reveals the women nudged to the margins of music history. bit.ly/4izsYlY

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For Black History Month, I read โ€œ๐™’๐™๐™š๐™ฃ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐˜ฝ๐™š๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™’๐™–๐™จ ๐˜ฝ๐™ค๐™ง๐™ฃ: ๐˜ฟ๐™… ๐™†๐™ค๐™ค๐™ก ๐™ƒ๐™š๐™ง๐™˜ ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐˜พ๐™ง๐™š๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ ๐™ค๐™› ๐™ƒ๐™ž๐™ฅ ๐™ƒ๐™ค๐™ฅโ€ to the kids at Oaklandโ€™s Montclair Elementary, thanks to my buddy & rockstar librarian Jen Vetter. I got to tell about the immigrant who helped build the most dominant art form of the last 50 years!

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Join me on Feb 12 for ๐๐ฅ๐š๐œ๐ค ๐‚๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐๐ž๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ž ๐๐ž๐ฒ๐จ๐ง๐œ๐žฬ: ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐’๐ž๐œ๐ซ๐ž๐ญ ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐€๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ง-๐€๐ฆ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ง๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง ๐‚๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐Œ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐œ, a humorous, highly immersive, and historically accurate talk that uncovers the African-American roots of Country, Folk, and Americana music. Learn more: www.facebook.com/events/40597...

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๐—œ ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฎ ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜†๐—น๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ด๐˜€ ๐—œ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฐ.ย Oneโ€™s an earnest folk ditty from a film score, oneโ€™s a restorative ambient piece, and oneโ€™s an Americana Christmas waltz. You know,ย ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜ญ. Listen on YouTube: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

MMF 2024 Music - YouTube

Welcome to the playlist of Americana, ambient, and folk music Mark Montgomery French released in 2024.

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โ€œBeatles โ€™64โ€ is the first documentary Iโ€™ve seen that shows Beatlemania through a non-white lens. From period footage of Black & Latino fans through current chats with Ron Isley & Smokey Robinson, it captures people of colorโ€™s unique take on The Fab Four. ondisneyplus.disney.com/movie/beatle...

Beatles '64

On February 7, 1964, The Beatles arrived in New York City to unprecedented excitement and hysteria. From the instant they landed...

ondisneyplus.disney.com

Tonightโ€™s question at the gig: what bands changed drummers after their breakthrough yet didnโ€™t fall off commercially or critically? We came up with Pearl Jam (3 over first 4 records) and The Cure (Lol Tolhurst was the first but Boris Williams was on โ€œDisintegrationโ€, among others. Anyone else?