Over the last three decades there are few who have been as involved with the Dance Music scene than Howard Tripp. Outside of Grand Mix Masters Kurt “K.O.T.O.” Curtis and Bobby Stoner, there has been no one in the Tampa Bay area who has spent as many years behind a pair of turntables as Howard Tripp. Tripp landed his first club gig in 1975 when he was hired by Sam Pinnizotto to be the resident DJ for Backstreets located on Madeira Beach. After a few years Pinnizotto opened a new club on St. Pete Beach called The Gallery and took Tripp with him. Over the years The Gallery became the #1 hot spot for spring breakers and tourists and Tripp logged in 25 years working there. Tripp also helped open popular Clearwater clubs Cahoots and Jamminz. During the Seventies Tripp was an early member of the Tampa Bay Disco pool and eventually became the founder of the Suncoast Record pool and DJ association.

The Suncoast record pool ran by Tripp for over 23 years is one of the oldest record pools in the U.S. At one time 1/3 of the national promotional Directors of major labels in New York City came from Tripp’s office. In 2003 Tripp sold the business to longtime member and Grand Mix Master Rafael Roman. Throughout the last three decades Tripp received countless national awards for his work with major record labels. He often brought local and new talent to the attention of major labels. He was involved in the early development of Expose’ once they were signed to the major Arista label. In the mid Eighties Tripp created Tampa Bay’s first radio mix show on WNLT while using the handle of “The Hitman-Howie T”. He later moved to U-92 and launched the first 70’s Disco show. During the Eighties Tripp also started the first music video pool and supplied clubs throughout the state with the latest promotional videos.

Besides being one of Tampa Bay’s early pioneers of the turntables, Tripp was a professional Ballroom and Disco dancer and competed in national and world contests. At one point in his dancing career he was rated one the best Disco dancers in the country and appeared regularly on Ft. Lauderdale’s TV dance show “Dance Magic”. He became Close friends with famed Disco dancer Denny Terrio from the national TV show “Dance Fever”. Between 1979-2001, Tripp owned dance schools from Tampa to Texas. Tripp still does occasional gigs but has pretty much retired from the Dance Music scene. Tripp can take pride in the fact that he has received one more award by being inducted into the Tampa Bay Grand Mix Masters Hall Of Fame.