Well, You Don’t Say: 9 Celebrities, Ballers, Authors And Vixens You Might Not Have Known Were Virgin Islanders

Sonny Rollins

Jazz saxophonist and legend, Sonny Rollins was actually born in New York City, but his parents were natives of the U.S. Virgin Islands. He has much love for the island, and his best known work, “St. Thomas,” was a calypso track influenced by a tune his mother used to sing to him as a child that she picked up while living in VI. He was said to have introduced the jazz world to calypso music through that classic. Rollins’s mother actually bought him his first saxophone, not knowing that he would want to become a jazz musician. As his sister, Gloria Anderson put it, “All West Indian parents wanted children who could entertain by playing something at teatime on Sundays, but no one wanted them to think of becoming a jazz musician.” Luckily for his family, Rollins isn’t half bad…*winks*