Howard was born in 1956 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the late 1970s, he began touring with Grover Washington Jr., who was one of his idols. In the early 1980s, Howard released his first and second studio albums, Asphalt Garden and Steppin' Out. Both albums were well received and ranked high on the Billboard magazine jazz album charts at number 25 and 9, respectively.

By 1985, Howard's third album, Dancing in the Sun, had scaled the Billboard Jazz Album chart to number 1. Each of his next three albums, Love Will Follow, A Place to Be and Reflections would also reach this height in the Jazz Album chart. After the success of Dancing in the Sun, Howard left the label GRP Records inorder to join MCA through the 1989 release of Reflections. However, he returned to GRP Records in 1990 and released Love Will Follow in 1991. He stayed with GRP until his untimely death on March 20, 1998 for reasons unknown. His final album, There's a Riot Goin' On was released posthumously one month after his death on April 21 by Blue Note Records.