ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sleepy Man Banjo Boys - Bluegrass musicians
The Sleepy Man Banjo Boys is made up of 11-year-old banjo sensation Jonny Mizzone and his brothers Robbie, 14, on fiddle, and Tommy, 15, on guitar.

Why you should listen

These days your kid can get famous on YouTube for having water sprayed at him, for being duped about his Halloween candy, and for being high off laughing gas. But what if your 8-year-old gets famous on the Internet for being an absolute genius on the banjo? So goes the story of Jonny Mizzone, who first became a YouTube sensation in early 2011 for videos of him and his brothers tearing it up playing Earl Scruggs's Flint Hill Special. It wasn't long before the press started calling.

Now Jonny, Robbie (fiddle) and Tommy (guitar), known as the Sleepy Man Banjo Boys, are 11, 14 and 15 respectively. In 2011 alone they got calls from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and in the summer of 2011 they appeared as musical guests on The Late Show with David Letterman and NBC’s Today Show.

While the trio grew up in New Jersey -- which is known more for rock music than for bluegrass -- they fell in love with the unique sounds of J.D. Crowe, Ralph Stanley, Clarence White and Earl Scruggs after some creative YouTube searching. Now, having become sensations on the platform themselves, the trio has accumulated more than 17 million video views. Their first album, America’s Music, was released in September 2011 and charted top eight on the Billboard Bluegrass Album Chart. In October 2012 they released their second album, The Farthest Horizon, which cracked the top three. The group is already at work on their next album.

More profile about the speaker
Sleepy Man Banjo Boys | Speaker | TED.com
TED2013

Sleepy Man Banjo Boys: Bluegrass virtuosity from ... New Jersey?

Sleepy Man Banjo Boys : la virtuosité de la musique bluegrass venue du... New Jersey?

Filmed:
7,302,577 views

Âgés tous de moins de 16 ans, les frères Jonny, Robbie et Tommy Mizzone sont du New Jersey, un État américain qui est mieux connu pour le rock de Bruce Springsteen que pour la musique bluegrass d'Earl Scruggs. Néanmoins, à un très jeune âge, les frères ont commencé à faire des reprises de chansons bluegrass connues, ainsi qu'écrire leurs propres compositions. Dans cette vidéo, ils jouent trois chansons éblouissantes en trois tonalités différentes, en passant la vedette tour à tour du violon au banjo à la guitare.
- Bluegrass musicians
The Sleepy Man Banjo Boys is made up of 11-year-old banjo sensation Jonny Mizzone and his brothers Robbie, 14, on fiddle, and Tommy, 15, on guitar. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:14
(MusicMusique)
0
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8740
(Musique)
01:57
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
1
105512
3752
(Applaudissements)
02:01
(MusicMusique)
2
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8332
(Musique)
02:21
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
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(Applaudissements)
02:31
RobbieRobbie MizzoneMizzone: Thank you.
4
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1979
Robbie Mizzone: Merci.
02:33
TommyTommy MizzoneMizzone: Thank you very much.
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Tommy Mizzone: Merci beaucoup.
02:34
We're so excitedexcité to be here.
It's suchtel an honorhonneur for us.
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Nous sommes très heureux d'être ici.
C'est un honneur pour nous.
02:36
Like he said, we're
threeTrois brothersfrères from NewNouveau JerseyMaillot --
7
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2746
Comme on a dit, nous sommes
trois frères du New Jersey --
02:39
you know, the bluegrasspâturin des prés
capitalCapitale of the worldmonde.
8
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vous savez, la capitale mondiale
de la musique bluegrass.
02:43
(LaughterRires)
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(Rires)
02:45
We discovereddécouvert bluegrasspâturin des prés a fewpeu yearsannées agodepuis,
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Nous avons découvert le bluegrass
il y a quelques années,
02:47
and we fellest tombée in love with it.
We hopeespérer you guys will too.
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et nous en sommes tombés amoureux.
J'espère que vous le deviendrez aussi.
La prochaine chanson est une composition originale appelée « Timelapse » .
02:50
This nextprochain songchant is an originaloriginal
we wrotea écrit calledappelé "TimelapseTimelapse,"
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02:54
and it will probablyProbablement livevivre up to its nameprénom.
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Elle sonnera probablement à la hauteur de son nom.
02:57
(TuningTuning)
14
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8006
(Accords)
03:05
(MusicMusique)
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(Musique)
04:49
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
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(Applaudissements)
05:01
TMTM: Thank you very much.
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TM : Merci beaucoup.
05:04
RMRM: I'm just going to take
a secondseconde to introduceprésenter the bandB: et.
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RM : Je vais juste prendre une seconde
pour présenter le groupe.
À la guitare, mon frère Tommy, 15 ans.
05:07
On guitarguitare is my 15-year-old-Age brotherfrère TommyTommy.
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05:09
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
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(Applaudissements)
05:14
On banjobanjo is 10-year-old-Age JonnyJonny.
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Au banjo Jonny, 10 ans.
05:17
(ApplauseApplaudissements) He's alsoaussi our brotherfrère.
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(Applaudissements) Il est aussi notre frère.
05:23
And I'm RobbieRobbie, and I'm 14,
and I playjouer the fiddleFiddle.
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Je m'appelle Robbie, j'ai 14 ans
et je joue du violon.
05:26
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
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(Applaudissements)
05:30
As you can see, we decideddécidé
to make it harddifficile on ourselvesnous-mêmes,
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Comme vous voyez, nous avons décidé
de nous compliquer la vie
en choisissant de jouer
05:33
and we chosechoisi to playjouer threeTrois songsChansons
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trois chansons dans trois tonalités différentes.
05:35
in threeTrois differentdifférent keysclés.
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05:39
Yeah. I'm alsoaussi going to explainExplique,
a lot of people want to know
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Aussi, je vais expliquer --
beaucoup de gens veulent savoir
d'où vient notre nom « Sleepy Man Banjo Boys ».
05:42
where we got the nameprénom
SleepySomnolent Man BanjoBanjo BoysGarçons from.
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05:44
So it startedcommencé when JonnyJonny was little,
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Tout a commencé quand Jonny était petit,
05:47
and he first startedcommencé the banjobanjo,
he would playjouer on his back
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et il commençait à apprendre le banjo,
il jouait couché
05:50
with his eyesles yeux closedfermé,
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avec les yeux fermés,
05:51
and we'dmer say it lookedregardé
like he was sleepingen train de dormir.
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et nous disions qu'il semblait dormir.
05:53
So you can probablyProbablement piecepièce
the restdu repos togetherensemble.
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Vous pouvez sans doute deviner le reste.
TM : Nous ne comprenions pas pourquoi.
05:55
TMTM: We can't really figurefigure
out the reasonraison for this.
35
343898
2429
Peut-être le banjo pesait une tonne.
05:58
It mightpourrait have been that it
weighspèse about a millionmillion poundslivres sterling.
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06:02
(MusicMusique)
37
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(Musique)
07:39
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
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(Applaudissements)
07:43
(MusicMusique)
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(Musique)
08:25
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
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(Applaudissements)
08:30
TMTM: Thank you very much.
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TM : Merci beaucoup.
08:32
RMRM: Thank you.
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RM : Merci.
Translated by Naíma Perrella Milani
Reviewed by Guillaume Vier

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sleepy Man Banjo Boys - Bluegrass musicians
The Sleepy Man Banjo Boys is made up of 11-year-old banjo sensation Jonny Mizzone and his brothers Robbie, 14, on fiddle, and Tommy, 15, on guitar.

Why you should listen

These days your kid can get famous on YouTube for having water sprayed at him, for being duped about his Halloween candy, and for being high off laughing gas. But what if your 8-year-old gets famous on the Internet for being an absolute genius on the banjo? So goes the story of Jonny Mizzone, who first became a YouTube sensation in early 2011 for videos of him and his brothers tearing it up playing Earl Scruggs's Flint Hill Special. It wasn't long before the press started calling.

Now Jonny, Robbie (fiddle) and Tommy (guitar), known as the Sleepy Man Banjo Boys, are 11, 14 and 15 respectively. In 2011 alone they got calls from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and in the summer of 2011 they appeared as musical guests on The Late Show with David Letterman and NBC’s Today Show.

While the trio grew up in New Jersey -- which is known more for rock music than for bluegrass -- they fell in love with the unique sounds of J.D. Crowe, Ralph Stanley, Clarence White and Earl Scruggs after some creative YouTube searching. Now, having become sensations on the platform themselves, the trio has accumulated more than 17 million video views. Their first album, America’s Music, was released in September 2011 and charted top eight on the Billboard Bluegrass Album Chart. In October 2012 they released their second album, The Farthest Horizon, which cracked the top three. The group is already at work on their next album.

More profile about the speaker
Sleepy Man Banjo Boys | Speaker | TED.com

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