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: Virtuoser Bluegrass aus... New Jersey?

Filmed: 2013-02-26

Readability: 3.2

7,302,577 views

Die Brüder Jonny, Robbie und Tommy Mizzone sind alle unter 16 Jahre alt und stammen aus New Jersey, einem US-Bundesstaat, den man eher für den Rock von Bruce Springsteen als den Bluegrass von Earl Scruggs kennt. Dennoch begannen die drei Geschwister bereits in jungen Jahren, sowohl Bluegrass-Stücke zu covern als auch ihre eigenen Stücke zu komponieren. Hier spielen sie drei geniale Stücke in drei verschiedenen Tonarten, wobei Fiddle, Banjo und Gitarre sich im Lead abwechseln.

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. Full bio

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

00:14

(MusicMusik)

0

2583

8740

(Musik)

01:57

(ApplauseApplaus)

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3752

(Applaus)

02:01

(MusicMusik)

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(Musik)

02:21

(ApplauseApplaus)

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9657

(Applaus)

02:31

RobbieRobbie MizzoneMizzone: Thank you.

4

139124

1979

Robbie Mizzone: Danke.

02:33

TommyTommy MizzoneMizzone: Thank you very much.

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Tommy Mizzone: Vielen Dank.

02:34

We're so excitedaufgeregt to be here.
It's sucheine solche an honorEhre for us.

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Wir sind so aufgeregt hier zu sein.
Das ist für uns eine große Ehre.

02:36

Like he said, we're
threedrei brothersBrüder from NewNeu JerseyJersey --

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Wie er schon sagte, wir sind
drei Brüder aus New Jersey,

02:39

you know, the bluegrassBluegrass
capitalHauptstadt of the worldWelt.

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die Welthauptstadt des Bluegrass,
wie Sie sicher wissen.

02:43

(LaughterLachen)

9

151371

1787

(Lachen)

02:45

We discoveredentdeckt bluegrassBluegrass a fewwenige yearsJahre agovor,

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Wir entdeckten Bluegrass
vor ein paar Jahren

02:47

and we fellfiel in love with it.
We hopeHoffnung you guys will too.

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und haben uns in diese Musikrichtung verliebt.
Wir hoffen, dass das bei Ihnen genauso ist.

Das nächste Stück haben wir selbst geschrieben.
Es trägt den Titel „Time lapse“ („Zeitraffer“)

02:50

This nextNächster songLied is an originalOriginal
we wroteschrieb callednamens "TimelapseTimelapse,"

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02:54

and it will probablywahrscheinlich liveLeben up to its nameName.

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und es wird seinem Namen
wahrscheinlich alle Ehre machen.

02:57

(TuningTuning)

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(Stimmen der Instrumente)

03:05

(MusicMusik)

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(Musik)

04:49

(ApplauseApplaus)

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(Applaus)

05:01

TMTM: Thank you very much.

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TM: Vielen Dank!

05:04

RMRM: I'm just going to take
a secondzweite to introducevorstellen the bandBand.

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RM: Ich möchte Ihnen kurz die Band vorstellen.

An der Gitarre:
mein 15-jähriger Bruder Tommy.

05:07

On guitarGitarre is my 15-year-old-Jahr alt brotherBruder TommyTommy.

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05:09

(ApplauseApplaus)

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(Applaus)

05:14

On banjoBanjo is 10-year-old-Jahr alt JonnyJonny.

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Am Banjo:
der 10-jährige Jonny.

05:17

(ApplauseApplaus) He's alsoebenfalls our brotherBruder.

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(Applaus) Er ist auch unser Bruder.

05:23

And I'm RobbieRobbie, and I'm 14,
and I playspielen the fiddleGeige.

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Und ich bin Robbie, ich bin 14
und ich spiele die Fiddle.

05:26

(ApplauseApplaus)

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(Applaus)

05:30

As you can see, we decidedbeschlossen
to make it hardhart on ourselvesuns selbst,

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Wie Sie sehen können, haben wir
es uns selbst schwer gemacht,

indem wir beschlossen haben,
drei verschiedene Stücke

05:33

and we chosewählte to playspielen threedrei songsLieder

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in drei verschiedenen
Tonarten zu spielen.

05:35

in threedrei differentanders keysSchlüssel.

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05:39

Yeah. I'm alsoebenfalls going to explainerklären,
a lot of people want to know

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Ich möchte auch erklären,
was viele Leute wissen wollen,

nämlich, woher der Name
„Sleepy Man Banjo Boys“ kommt.

05:42

where we got the nameName
SleepySchläfrig Man BanjoBanjo BoysJungen from.

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05:44

So it startedhat angefangen when JonnyJonny was little,

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Alles hat angefangen,
als Jonny klein war.

05:47

and he first startedhat angefangen the banjoBanjo,
he would playspielen on his back

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Als er begann,
Banjo zu spielen,

05:50

with his eyesAugen closedabgeschlossen,

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spielte er auf seinem Rücken,
mit geschlossenen Augen,

05:51

and we'dheiraten say it lookedsah
like he was sleepingSchlafen.

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und wir sagten, dass das ausieht,
als ob er schlafen würde.

05:53

So you can probablywahrscheinlich pieceStück
the restsich ausruhen togetherzusammen.

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Den Rest können
Sie sich selber denken.

TM: Wir können uns
das auch nicht richtig erklären.

05:55

TMTM: We can't really figureZahl
out the reasonGrund for this.

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Vielleicht hat das Banjo
eine Millionen Pfund gewogen.

05:58

It mightMacht have been that it
weighswiegt about a millionMillion poundsPfunde.

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06:02

(MusicMusik)

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(Musik)

07:39

(ApplauseApplaus)

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(Applaus)

07:43

(MusicMusik)

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(Musik)

08:25

(ApplauseApplaus)

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(Applaus)

08:30

TMTM: Thank you very much.

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TM: Vielen Dank.

08:32

RMRM: Thank you.

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500646

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RM: Danke.

Translated by Angela Raabe
Reviewed by Nadine Hennig

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

THE ORIGINAL VIDEO ON TED.COM

Sleepy Man Banjo Boys: Virtuoser Bluegrass aus... New Jersey? | TED Talk | TED.com