Angelo's
Musical Story

Angelo Babbaro in the Beginning

Angelo Babbaro grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. A city known for a diverse population of immigrants from many third world countries. All of whom came to the city did so to find work in the multitude of Steels Mills. In the early to mid-20^th century, Youngstown was known as the Steel Capital of the United States. People worked hard and played hard. The weekends were spent with family and attending movie theaters and live entertainment events. The downtown area consisted of having 6 main movie houses where the likes of The Tommy Dorsey Band, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Prima and countless other stars. The theaters were standing room only, especially The Warner Theater. This was located on West Federal St. and was the Warner Brothers first theater consisting of 2300 seats built in 1930.

Angelo always heard the stories from the previous generation who had attended the events of their era. This was fascinating to him. These stories are what sparked the flame in Angelo to learn about the Big Band Era, specifically about Frank Sinatra.

Angelo spent his teen years purchasing albums of Mr. Sinatra and enjoying the hundreds of recordings available. This began the journey of Angelo singing along with his favorite crooner. Over time, Angelo began to understand the music, lyrics and purpose of this style of music. He was hooked!

Angelo's Journey

After many years of self-study, Angelo decided to schedule a recoding session to explore his learned hobby. He called Gary Rhamy, owner of Peppermint Productions in Youngstown. This studio has won 5 Grammy Awards over the years and is the premier recording studio in Youngstown. He recorded his first CD in 2010 with songs such as Come Fly With Me, I Get A Kick Out Of You, The Way You Look Tonight and the crowd favorite, Ol Man River.

His next adventure was to develop live video and a website. In 2011, angelobabbaro.com was constructed and Angelo was off and running.

Over the next 4 years, Angelo worked with a variety of popular Big Bands. The Carmen Mico Orchestra, The Don Burns Big Band, The Rick Brunetto Big Band, The Misery Big Band, The Youngstown All-Star Big Band and The Warren Packard Music Big Band. These band leaders took Angelo in and taught him the art of performing with a 17-piece band, This training proved invaluable since it prepared Angelo for his next journey.

Angelo was invited by Steve Love of Love Productions to perform in Mid-town Manhattan at the 2015 Association of Performing arts Professions yearly event. He was accompanied by The Sammy Fields Orchestra. Sammy has orchestrated for some of the greatest singers in the history of music with the likes of Barbara Streisand, Stevie Wonder and Frankie Valli to name a few. He also was a songwriting partner with Sammy Cahn on 35 Frank Sinatra hits. The performance was a smashing success to presenters in the entertainment industry from all over the world.

Following his APAP performance, Angelo was asked to join the cast of The Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack Show. What ensued over the next 4 years was an incredible journey of performing in this countries finest theaters and performing arts centers. It gave Angelo an opportunity to travel the country
and perform in over 100 shows to thousands of attendees.

Eliot Weisman & Angelo Babbaro

In 2019, Angelo had the pleasure to perform at a private event in Boca Raton, Florida. In the audience that evening was Eliot Weisman, Frank Sinatra’s manager of more than 20 years. After the show, Angelo and his manager James Sabatine were invited to spend the following day at Eliot’s home, having lunch and telling Frank Sinatra stories. This opportunity was life changing as Angelo learned a great deal from Eliot. He has since helped Angelo with his career, and they have become associates and great friends.

In 2020, Angelo then embarked on his next journey, a career as a solo artist. Thus began performances in Las Vegas, corporate events in New York, Philadelphia and Ft. Lauderdale. Private parties in Palm Beach, New Jersey and The Hamptons. Casinos in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and many more local and regional events in the Ohio area.

It’s safe to say that Angelo Babbaro is well on his way to become a major force in the entertainment industry while providing his audiences an opportunity to go back in time and relive the golden age of Big Band Music.