A Conversation with Micah Lapidus

Joe Alterman: Could you share a little bit about this group and its history?

Micah Lapidus: Hello, Goodbye and Peace Ensemble is basically a group of people who share a vision for the world and create music that is in service of that vision. And the vision is people are connected, people feel good, people feel hope, people feel like they’re able to access some of the wisdom that has nurtured humanity for generations, people feel inspired and people feel empowered. People want to feel all of those things, on a deep level. And people often turn to the arts and to creative endeavors to help provide some of that inspiration and nourishment, and what I’ve come to discover through many years of composing and creating music, is that at the end of the day music is a vehicle. To paraphrase Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, “We’re not in the entertainment business; we’re in the transportation business.” Let’s get from A to B.

JA: When and why did you name the band "Hello, Goodbye and Peace?"

ML: I spent a lot of time contemplating ways of naming my musical creativity because it felt like “The Micah Lapidus Show” was not exactly what I was going for. And so, having said that, if you survey the landscape of the Jewish world there are all sorts of clever names for things - some of which are funny, some of which are esoteric, and some of which are really meaningful but buried in Hebrew. And so eventually it just dawned on me, as I thought about the word Shalom…I feel like that word “shalom” encapsulates so much of what Judaism stands for. And the word “shalom,” which means “hello,” “goodbye” and “peace.” But “shalom” means something different than “peace.” And it means something different than “hello” and “goodbye.” It means something different than all three of those together. And at the same time, one thing that pretty much every Jewish person knows, regardless of the extent of their Jewish education, is what the word “shalom” means. And so I felt like I could signal to people that this is a Jewish thing but it’s accessible, it’s achievable, it’s close to you. It’s non-confrontational, it’s down to earth, it’s something you can wrap your mind around. And Shalom/Hello, Goodbye and Peace is just a starting point for this kind of exploration of these matters of importance through music.

JA: Can you share some of the group’s accomplishments thus far?

ML: We’ve managed to create an ensemble of incredibly talented and generous musicians; that’s not an easy thing to do in today’s world where people are busy and scattered and distracted, and parenthetically there’s a pandemic. So I would just say the fact that such talented, mission-appropriate and generous people have coalesced around this thing is an extraordinary feat, and that comes through, I’d like to think, any time we’re together and creating music, even in a rehearsal. That’s thing number one.

Thing number two: I guess I would say that in response to some of the hunger that exists within the Jewish community for meaningful experiences in a Jewish context, we’ve had opportunities to provide some: a monthly service at The Well for young professionals for a number of years; whether that’s a series of concerts for professional organizations like the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the American Conference of Cantors and the faculty and student body of the Hebrew Union College, things like that - that are perhaps not meaningful to a general readership but for those who are with the Jewish professional world, those are major milestones for a Jewish composer.

I would say the ability to create and produce 60-70 songs professionally. Mixed, mastered, recorded, muli-tracked in a recording studio - which are embedded on 5 or 6 albums; that certainly is a sizable body of work from which to draw. Those are some of the most concrete things that come to mind - and certainly performing at the Neranenah debut summer showcase also qualifies!

JA: What about your experience at Mercedes Benz Stadium and “Keep Swinging”?

ML: I think the opportunity to participate in venues that are beyond the walls of the Jewish community, so to sing with a group of folks from Ebeneezer Baptist and the school where I work, the Davis Academy, at the 50 yard line, an original song before a Falcons game which, lets just say they won…that was pretty special. And an opportunity to work with you to record a song called “Keep Swinging,” in honor of Hank Aaron. And to have the joy of hearing people talk about how that song was part of their hype playlist for the World Series. Things like that. So, what I would say is when you approach the world through the lens of a songwriter it kind of broadens your horizons in some fun ways.

JA: Can you speak a bit to your growing musical partnership with Melvin Myles, who you frequently collaborate with and is also a part of Hello, Goodbye and Peace?

ML: Music is inherently relational, and that’s one of the things that, I think, makes it so seductive and rewarding for folks who participate in it, and so I feel incredibly blessed that a number of years ago I forged a musical friendship with Melvin Myles, who is a soloist at Ebeneezer Baptist Church, and through patience and through a shared understanding that there was something special going on there, and then eventually through a shared desire to put the pedal to the medal, Melvin and I have increased not only our personal ties, but our musical creativity and output. And our professional ties we’ve really joined forces, not only under the auspices of Hello, Goodbye and Peace, but also under the auspices of Lapidus & Myles, which is currently - it still sounds weird for me to say - essentially constructing a national tour that’s allowing us to take our shared music and message and story to inspire other folks outside of the Atlanta community. And kind of parallel to that, I would say, as the composer-in-residence at The Temple here in Atlanta, is the opportunity to work very closely with The Temple, and particularly in the context of their long and historic partnership with Ebeneezer Baptist Church, which is a multi-prong partnership that does a lot of important social justice work but also has a really important musical component that is sort of most notably enacted every year on Martin Luther King weekend through an interfaith shabbat service where the combined choirs sing. And so I was privileged to Executive Produce an album of the music that is essential to the musical celebration every year - and not only Executive Produce it, but I’m obviously very proud that, of the seven compositions, six are original compositions of mine - and the seventh composition is actually a piece that was sung at Martin Luther King’s funeral, and therefore has profound historical significance.

JA: Can you share a bit about what the evening at Urban Tree Cidery will look like?

ML: What’s the evening going to look like? And maybe this is a good thing to end with: we’re going to have fun, we’re going to get fired up!

JA: Oh yes. One last question: this is a Shabbat, which is obviously a Jewish thing, but both you and us at Neranenah want to speak to everyone. Can you share what you think a Jew might get out of the evening and what a non-Jew might, too?

ML: Pretty much everything that’s good in Judaism isn’t good just for Jews; it’s good for everyone. Judaism’s greatest gifts are gifts for all humanity and all creation. Shabbat is about peace, gratitude, rest, celebration, enriching our lives, so I would expect a person of any faith, or every faith, or no faith - a child, an elder, whoever - to come and be able to feel the spirit of Shabbat as its intended to be.