by Julia Reischel

Teacher by day, musician and producer by night, Howard M. Teasley has brought all of his passions to a project that teaches Boston-area schoolchildren real-world skills.   

“To try to produce General Eclectic was wonderful,” said Teasley, who just became a Somerville resident.  “I produced a CD that the kids will market. The kids look at it from the business end.”

Citizen Schools, a Boston-based nonprofit, places schoolchildren in “apprenticeships” with professionals in various fields who help them produce marketable products.   Teasley’s CD, General Eclectic, was developed, produced and marketed by apprentices from the group’s Eighth Grade Academy.

“We are making this CD because we think that there is a market for good, and also positive music entertainment in the community,” says Dennishia, one of the eighth-grade producers, in the liner notes of the CD. 

The group hired Teasley, who works as a music teacher at Grover Cleveland Middle School in Dorchester, to produce the CD and write the songs, some of which feature the eighth-graders themselves as artists.

General Eclectic has eighteen tracks that range in style from a folk-country song by Chris Bradley to an R&B ballad by Kayron Wright to a vocal duet by Citizen Schools staff members Kristin and Karin Hansen. 

Teasley wrote and recorded the bulk of the songs on the CD in only three weeks, usually in just one or two sessions with each artist.  “I just wrote the songs when the artists walked in,” said Teasley.   

“We’d feel out the first session with a bunch of grooves, and then they’d start singing in the booth,” he said. “When they’d come back, the song was basically written.  All they had to do was learn it.  It was basically about their learning curve.” 

On the day of the session to record a slow song called “Eternally,” the singer cancelled at the last minute, forcing Teasley to find a replacement.  Charlene Cham agreed to do the track on the fly.  “She just came in and everything I told her to sing she sang right back,” said Teasley.  “It’s the hottest track on the CD.” 

Teasley began his music career with a degree in music business at Howard University in Washington DC, and then worked at the Smithsonian as a jazz production assistant.  But he was always a musician at heart. 

HHHe learned guitar at age seven, and played a variety of other instruments throughout his childhood. 

“I went to elementary school with a guitar in one hand and a flute in the other,” he said.  But a “mean case of stage fright” kept him off the stage.  In 1997, fed up with not living his dream, Teasley decided to move to Boston.   

“I didn’t want to sit behind a desk,” Teasley said.  “I wanted to play.” 

Boston had many teaching opportunities and several great music schools, like the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory.  “Just to be in this area, you just learn stuff,” said Teasley. 

Teasley’s years in Boston have been good for his career.  He plays with a number of area bands, including the Nubian Professionals, and takes regular gigs producing R&B and funk. 

“I’ve been building up steam on my own thing, and all of a sudden my recordings are starting to sound really good,” he said.   

“I’ve learned that it has to be internal—it has to be inside before it comes out,” he said.  “It’s written in my head first; then I try and figure out how to get it out.  You’ve to sing it first, then play it.” 

Teasley said he tried to make a statement with General Eclectic.

“‘Eclectic’ means a gathering of a whole bunch of different influences,” he said.  “I listen to all that stuff.  They are only twelve tones, like the twelve months of the year.” 

Eventually, Teasley hopes to move to Atlanta to pursue his music career. 

“I want to make it big,” he said.  “This is a great place to grow, but I think I’ve outgrown it.  Atlanta is a different environment; there are more producers doing what I like.” 

For now, Teasley is working on another CD, which he says will be released in March 2005.  “This one will be totally me,” said Teasley.  “It will be hot, cutting-edge. It will still be eclectic in the sense that it will draw from R&B, funk, rock, and everything else—like an everything bagel.”   

“I’ve got to take Boston by storm,” Teasley said.  “You’ve got to blow up where you’re at.”