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

Sleepy Man Banjo Boys: Sleepy Man Banjo Boys: Virtuosos del bluegrass... ¿de Nueva Jersey?

Filmed:
7,302,577 views

Todos menores de 16 años, los hermanos Jonny, Robbie y Tommy Mizzone son de Nueva Jersey, un estado norteamericano más conocido por el rock de Bruce Springteen que por el bluegrass de Earl Scruggs. Aun así, desde muy pequeños, estos hermanos comenzaron a tocar covers de bluegrass, así como también sus propias composiciones. Aquí, tocan tres canciones deslumbrantes en tres claves diferentes, pasándose el liderazgo ida y vuelta del violín, al banjo y a la guitarra.
- 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
(MusicMúsica)
0
2583
8740
(Música)
01:57
(ApplauseAplausos)
1
105512
3752
(Aplausos)
02:01
(MusicMúsica)
2
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8332
(Música)
02:21
(ApplauseAplausos)
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129443
9657
(Aplausos)
02:31
RobbieRobbie MizzoneMizzone: Thank you.
4
139124
1979
Robbie Mizzone: Gracias.
02:33
TommyTommy MizzoneMizzone: Thank you very much.
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Tommy Mizzone: Muchas gracias.
02:34
We're so excitedemocionado to be here.
It's suchtal an honorhonor for us.
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Estamos muy emocionados de estar aquí.
Es un honor para nosotros.
02:36
Like he said, we're
threeTres brothershermanos from NewNuevo JerseyJersey --
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Como él dijo, somos tres
hermanos de Nueva Jersey...
02:39
you know, the bluegrassbluegrass
capitalcapital of the worldmundo.
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ya saben, la capital mundial
del bluegrass.
02:43
(LaughterRisa)
9
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1787
(Risas)
02:45
We discovereddescubierto bluegrassbluegrass a fewpocos yearsaños agohace,
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Descubrimos el bluegrass hace pocos años,
02:47
and we fellcayó in love with it.
We hopeesperanza you guys will too.
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y nos encantó. Esperamos que a Uds.
también les guste.
La siguiente canción es una composición
propia llamada "Timelapse" [cámara rápida],
02:50
This nextsiguiente songcanción is an originaloriginal
we wroteescribió calledllamado "TimelapseLapso de tiempo,"
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02:54
and it will probablyprobablemente livevivir up to its namenombre.
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y probablemente hará honor a su nombre.
02:57
(TuningSintonización)
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(Afinando)
03:05
(MusicMúsica)
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(Música)
04:49
(ApplauseAplausos)
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(Aplausos)
05:01
TMTM: Thank you very much.
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TM: Muchas gracias.
05:04
RMRM: I'm just going to take
a secondsegundo to introduceintroducir the bandbanda.
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RM: Voy a tomarme un minuto
para presentar a la banda.
En la guitarra, mi hermano
Tommy, de 15 años.
05:07
On guitarguitarra is my 15-year-old-edad brotherhermano TommyTommy.
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05:09
(ApplauseAplausos)
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(Aplausos)
05:14
On banjobanjo is 10-year-old-edad JonnyJonny.
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En el banjo, Jonny, de 10 años.
05:17
(ApplauseAplausos) He's alsoademás our brotherhermano.
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(Aplausos) También es nuestro hermano.
05:23
And I'm RobbieRobbie, and I'm 14,
and I playjugar the fiddleviolín.
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Y yo soy Robbie, tengo 14 años
y toco el violín.
05:26
(ApplauseAplausos)
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(Aplausos)
05:30
As you can see, we decideddecidido
to make it harddifícil on ourselvesNosotros mismos,
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Como pueden ver, decidimos hacerlo difícil,
y elegimos tocar 3 canciones
05:33
and we choseElegir to playjugar threeTres songscanciones
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en 3 claves diferentes.
05:35
in threeTres differentdiferente keysllaves.
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05:39
Yeah. I'm alsoademás going to explainexplique,
a lot of people want to know
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Sí. También voy a explicarles,
mucha gente quiere saber
de dónde sacamos el nombre
Chicos Banjo del Hombre Somnoliento.
05:42
where we got the namenombre
SleepySoñoliento Man BanjoBanjo BoysChicos from.
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05:44
So it startedempezado when JonnyJonny was little,
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Todo comenzó cuando Jonny era pequeño,
05:47
and he first startedempezado the banjobanjo,
he would playjugar on his back
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y empezó a tocar el banjo, tocaba acostado
05:50
with his eyesojos closedcerrado,
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con los ojos cerrados,
05:51
and we'dmie say it lookedmirado
like he was sleepingdormido.
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Y decíamos que parecía que estaba durmiendo.
05:53
So you can probablyprobablemente piecepieza
the restdescanso togetherjuntos.
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Así que seguramente pueden imaginarse el resto.
TM: Realmente no sabemos el motivo.
05:55
TMTM: We can't really figurefigura
out the reasonrazón for this.
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343898
2429
Puede ser porque pesa una tonelada.
05:58
It mightpodría have been that it
weighspesa about a millionmillón poundslibras.
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4003
06:02
(MusicMúsica)
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350378
9083
(Música)
07:39
(ApplauseAplausos)
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(Aplausos)
07:43
(MusicMúsica)
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(Música)
08:25
(ApplauseAplausos)
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(Aplausos)
08:30
TMTM: Thank you very much.
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TM: Muchas gracias.
08:32
RMRM: Thank you.
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RM: Gracias.
Translated by Carolina Ramon
Reviewed by Sebastian Betti

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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