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
2583
8740
(Musique)
01:57
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
1
105512
3752
(Applaudissements)
02:01
(MusicMusique)
2
109288
8332
(Musique)
02:21
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
3
129443
9657
(Applaudissements)
02:31
RobbieRobbie MizzoneMizzone: Thank you.
4
139124
1979
Robbie Mizzone: Merci.
02:33
TommyTommy MizzoneMizzone: Thank you very much.
5
141127
1192
Tommy Mizzone: Merci beaucoup.
02:34
We're so excitedexcité to be here.
It's suchtel an honorhonneur for us.
6
142343
2623
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
144990
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
147760
3587
vous savez, la capitale mondiale
de la musique bluegrass.
02:43
(LaughterRires)
9
151371
1787
(Rires)
02:45
We discovereddécouvert bluegrasspâturin des prés a fewpeu yearsannées agodepuis,
10
153182
2737
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.
11
155943
2620
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,"
12
158587
3629
02:54
and it will probablyProbablement livevivre up to its nameprénom.
13
162240
3234
Elle sonnera probablement à la hauteur de son nom.
02:57
(TuningTuning)
14
165498
8006
(Accords)
03:05
(MusicMusique)
15
173528
8124
(Musique)
04:49
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
16
277639
11650
(Applaudissements)
05:01
TMTM: Thank you very much.
17
289313
2993
TM : Merci beaucoup.
05:04
RMRM: I'm just going to take
a secondseconde to introduceprésenter the bandB: et.
18
292330
2762
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.
19
295116
2264
05:09
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
20
297404
5343
(Applaudissements)
05:14
On banjobanjo is 10-year-old-Age JonnyJonny.
21
302771
2476
Au banjo Jonny, 10 ans.
05:17
(ApplauseApplaudissements) He's alsoaussi our brotherfrère.
22
305271
6052
(Applaudissements) Il est aussi notre frère.
05:23
And I'm RobbieRobbie, and I'm 14,
and I playjouer the fiddleFiddle.
23
311347
2816
Je m'appelle Robbie, j'ai 14 ans
et je joue du violon.
05:26
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
24
314187
4768
(Applaudissements)
05:30
As you can see, we decideddécidé
to make it harddifficile on ourselvesnous-mêmes,
25
318979
2667
Comme vous voyez, nous avons décidé
de nous compliquer la vie
en choisissant de jouer
05:33
and we chosechoisi to playjouer threeTrois songsChansons
26
321670
1524
trois chansons dans trois tonalités différentes.
05:35
in threeTrois differentdifférent keysclés.
27
323218
3923
05:39
Yeah. I'm alsoaussi going to explainExplique,
a lot of people want to know
28
327165
2905
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.
29
330094
2795
05:44
So it startedcommencé when JonnyJonny was little,
30
332913
2268
Tout a commencé quand Jonny était petit,
05:47
and he first startedcommencé the banjobanjo,
he would playjouer on his back
31
335205
3374
et il commençait à apprendre le banjo,
il jouait couché
05:50
with his eyesles yeux closedfermé,
32
338603
1233
avec les yeux fermés,
05:51
and we'dmer say it lookedregardé
like he was sleepingen train de dormir.
33
339860
1894
et nous disions qu'il semblait dormir.
05:53
So you can probablyProbablement piecepièce
the restdu repos togetherensemble.
34
341778
2096
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.
36
346351
4003
06:02
(MusicMusique)
37
350378
9083
(Musique)
07:39
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
38
447266
4538
(Applaudissements)
07:43
(MusicMusique)
39
451828
5404
(Musique)
08:25
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
40
493230
5034
(Applaudissements)
08:30
TMTM: Thank you very much.
41
498288
2334
TM : Merci beaucoup.
08:32
RMRM: Thank you.
42
500646
4847
RM : Merci.
Translated by Naíma Perrella Milani
Reviewed by Guillaume Vier

▲Back to top

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