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: Talento bluegrass dal... New Jersey?

Filmed:
7,302,577 views

Tutti sotto i 16 anni, i fratelli Jonny, Robbie e Tommy Mizzone sono del New Jersey, uno stato degli USA che è meglio conosciuto per il rock di Bruce Springsteen piuttosto che per il bluegrass di Earl Scruggs. Ciononostante, questi fratelli hanno cominciato in giovane età a fare delle cover bluegrass, così come composizioni proprie. Qui suonano tre canzoni spettacolari in tre differenti tonalità, passando la conduzione avanti e indietro dal violino, al banjo, alla chitarra.
- 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
(MusicMusica)
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(ApplauseApplausi)
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02:31
RobbieRobbie MizzoneMizzone: Thank you.
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Robbie Mizzone: Grazie.
02:33
TommyTommy MizzoneMizzone: Thank you very much.
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Tommy Mizzone: Grazie mille.
02:34
We're so excitedemozionato to be here.
It's suchcome an honoronore for us.
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Siamo così emozionati di essere qui. È un tale onore per noi.
02:36
Like he said, we're
threetre brothersfratelli from NewNuovo JerseyJersey --
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Come ha detto, siamo tre fratelli dal New Jersey,
02:39
you know, the bluegrassBluegrass
capitalcapitale of the worldmondo.
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la capitale mondiale del bluegrass
02:43
(LaughterRisate)
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(Risate)
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We discoveredscoperto bluegrassBluegrass a fewpochi yearsanni agofa,
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Abbiamo scoperto il bluegrass qualche anno fa,
02:47
and we fellabbattere in love with it.
We hopesperanza you guys will too.
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e ce ne siamo innamorati. Speriamo sia lo stesso anche per voi.
La prossima è una canzone originale che abbiamo scritto intitolata "Timelapse,"
02:50
This nextIl prossimo songcanzone is an originaloriginale
we wroteha scritto calledchiamato "TimelapseTimelapse,"
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02:54
and it will probablyprobabilmente livevivere up to its namenome.
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e probabilmente farà onore al suo nome.
02:57
(TuningMessa a punto)
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(MusicMusica)
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(ApplauseApplausi)
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TMTM: Thank you very much.
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TM: Grazie mille.
05:04
RMRM: I'm just going to take
a secondsecondo to introduceintrodurre the bandgruppo musicale.
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RM: Mi prendo solo un attimo per presentarvi la band.
Alla chitarra mio fratello Tommy di 15 anni.
05:07
On guitarchitarra is my 15-year-old-anni brotherfratello TommyTommy.
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05:09
(ApplauseApplausi)
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On banjobangio is 10-year-old-anni JonnyJonny.
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Al banjo c'è Jonny di 10 anni.
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(ApplauseApplausi) He's alsoanche our brotherfratello.
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(Applausi) Anche lui è nostro fratello.
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And I'm RobbieRobbie, and I'm 14,
and I playgiocare the fiddleFiddle.
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E io sono Robbie, ho 14 anni, e suono il violino.
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(ApplauseApplausi)
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(Applausi)
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As you can see, we decideddeciso
to make it harddifficile on ourselvesnoi stessi,
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Come potete vedere, abbiamo deciso di renderci la vita difficile,
e abbiamo deciso di suonare tre canzoni
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and we chosescelto to playgiocare threetre songscanzoni
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in tre differenti tonalità.
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in threetre differentdiverso keyschiavi.
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05:39
Yeah. I'm alsoanche going to explainspiegare,
a lot of people want to know
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Devo spiegarmi, visto che un sacco di gente vuole sapere
da dove abbiamo preso il nome Sleepy Man Banjo Boys.
05:42
where we got the namenome
SleepySonnolento Man BanjoBanjo BoysRagazzi from.
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05:44
So it startediniziato when JonnyJonny was little,
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Tutto è iniziato quando Jonny era piccolo.
05:47
and he first startediniziato the banjobangio,
he would playgiocare on his back
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e ha cominciato a suonare il banjo, lo suonava sdraiato
05:50
with his eyesocchi closedchiuso,
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con gli occhi chiusi,
05:51
and we'dsaremmo say it lookedguardato
like he was sleepingaddormentato.
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e dicevamo che sembrava stesse dormendo.
05:53
So you can probablyprobabilmente piecepezzo
the restriposo togetherinsieme.
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Potete immaginarvi il resto.
TM: Non siamo riusciti a capirne il motivo.
05:55
TMTM: We can't really figurefigura
out the reasonragionare for this.
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Potrebbe darsi che pesi 1000 tonnellate.
05:58
It mightpotrebbe have been that it
weighspesa about a millionmilione poundssterline.
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06:02
(MusicMusica)
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(ApplauseApplausi)
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(MusicMusica)
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(ApplauseApplausi)
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(Applausi)
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TMTM: Thank you very much.
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TM: Grazie mille.
08:32
RMRM: Thank you.
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RM: Grazie.
Translated by Fabio Avino
Reviewed by Anna Cristiana Minoli

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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
THE ORIGINAL VIDEO ON TED.COM