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: Virtuozitate bluegrass din...New Jersey?

Filmed:
7,302,577 views

Având mai puţin de 16 ani, Jonny, Robbie şi Tommy Mizzone sunt din New Jersey, stat american cunoscut mai degrabă pentru muzica rock a lui Bruce Sprinsteen, decât pentru bluegrass-ul lui Earl Scruggs. Cu toate acestea, fraţii au început să cânte cover-uri, precum şi compoziţii originale de la o vârstă fragedă. Aici ei cântă trei piese uimitoare, în trei tonalităţi diferite, preluând conducerea prin rotaţie chitara, banjo-ul şi vioara.
- 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
(MusicMuzica)
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(Muzică)
01:57
(ApplauseAplauze)
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(Aplauze)
02:01
(MusicMuzica)
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02:21
(ApplauseAplauze)
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(Aplauze)
02:31
RobbieRobbie MizzoneMizzone: Thank you.
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Robbie Mizzone: Mulţumim.
02:33
TommyTommy MizzoneMizzone: Thank you very much.
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Tommy Mizzone: Vă mulţumim.
02:34
We're so excitedexcitat to be here.
It's suchastfel de an honoronora for us.
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Suntem încântaţi să fim aici. E o onoare pentru noi.
02:36
Like he said, we're
threeTrei brothersfrați from NewNoi JerseyJersey --
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Aşa cum a spus, suntem trei fraţi din New Jersey,
02:39
you know, the bluegrassbluegrass
capitalcapital of the worldlume.
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capitala mondială a stilului bluegrass.
02:43
(LaughterRâs)
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(Râsete)
02:45
We discovereddescoperit bluegrassbluegrass a fewpuțini yearsani agoîn urmă,
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Am descoperit stilul bluegrass acum câţiva ani.
02:47
and we fellcăzut in love with it.
We hopesperanţă you guys will too.
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Ne-am îndrăgostit de el şi sperăm că şi voi, de asemenea.
Cântecul următor e o compoziţie originală,
se numeşte „Timelapse”.
02:50
This nextUrmător → songcântec is an originaloriginal
we wrotea scris calleddenumit "TimelapseTimelapse,"
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02:54
and it will probablyprobabil livetrăi up to its nameNume.
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Probabil va suna până la înălţimea numelui său.
02:57
(TuningTuning)
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(Tuning)
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(MusicMuzica)
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(ApplauseAplauze)
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(Aplauze)
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TMTM: Thank you very much.
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TM: Vă mulţumim.
05:04
RMRM: I'm just going to take
a secondal doilea to introduceintroduce the bandgrup.
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RM: Am nevoie de o secundă ca să vă prezint trupa.
La chitară e fratele meu de 15 ani, Tommy.
05:07
On guitarchitara is my 15-year-old-de ani brotherfrate TommyTommy.
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05:09
(ApplauseAplauze)
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On banjobanjo is 10-year-old-de ani JonnyJonny.
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La banjo e Jonny, în vârstă de 10 ani.
05:17
(ApplauseAplauze) He's alsode asemenea our brotherfrate.
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(Aplauze) Şi el e fratele nostru.
05:23
And I'm RobbieRobbie, and I'm 14,
and I playa juca the fiddlevioara.
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Eu sunt Robbie, am 14 ani şi cânt la vioară.
05:26
(ApplauseAplauze)
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(Aplauze)
05:30
As you can see, we decideda decis
to make it hardgreu on ourselvesnoi insine,
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După cum vedeţi, am ales să ne complicăm viaţa
şi să cântăm trei cântece
05:33
and we chosea ales to playa juca threeTrei songscântece
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în trei tonalităţi diferite.
05:35
in threeTrei differentdiferit keyschei.
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Yeah. I'm alsode asemenea going to explainexplica,
a lot of people want to know
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Da. Vă voi explica, din moment ce mulţi vor să ştie,
de unde ne-am luat numele de Sleepy Man Banjo Boys.
05:42
where we got the nameNume
SleepySomnoros Man BanjoBanjo BoysBăieţi from.
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So it starteda început when JonnyJonny was little,
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Totul a început când Jonny era mic şi a început să cânte la banjo.
05:47
and he first starteda început the banjobanjo,
he would playa juca on his back
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Cânta stând pe spate,
05:50
with his eyesochi closedînchis,
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cu ochii închişi
05:51
and we'dne-am say it lookedprivit
like he was sleepingdormit.
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şi noi spuneam că arăta ca şi cum ar fi dormit.
05:53
So you can probablyprobabil piecebucată
the restodihnă togetherîmpreună.
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Puteţi ghici, probabil, restul.
TM: Noi nu înţelegem de ce.
05:55
TMTM: We can't really figurefigura
out the reasonmotiv for this.
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Poate pentru că banjo-ul cântărea o tonă.
05:58
It mightar putea have been that it
weighscântărește about a millionmilion poundslire sterline.
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06:02
(MusicMuzica)
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(Muzică)
07:39
(ApplauseAplauze)
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(MusicMuzica)
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(ApplauseAplauze)
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TMTM: Thank you very much.
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TM: Vă mulţumim.
08:32
RMRM: Thank you.
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RM: Vă mulţumim.
Translated by Ana-Maria Sirbu
Reviewed by Ariana Bleau Lugo

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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