Phil Manzanera, guitarist for Roxy Music, recently discovered that his family tree includes a surprising ancestor – Moses Cohen Henriques, a 17th-century Sephardic Jewish pirate who raided Spanish ships in the Caribbean and helped establish Jamaica’s first Jewish community.

The revelation came while Manzanera was researching his 2024 memoir Revolución to Roxy. A search on ancestry records connected his grandmother’s Sephardic roots to Henriques. “I Googled him, and he had a Wikipedia page, he was the most famous Jewish pirate of the Caribbean,” Manzanera said. “I even found a drawing that looked like me when I started with Roxy.”

Though best known for his long career with Roxy Music, Manzanera’s background is as eclectic as his music. Born in London, he grew up in Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, and Hawaii before joining the band in 1971. His memoir details the group’s early years, their stylistic shifts, and his later collaborations with Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Andy Mackay, and artists such as Bob Dylan.

Today, Manzanera continues to perform and record. His latest project with Mackay and drummer Paul Thompson revisits Roxy classics and explores improvisations born from their lockdown sessions. For Manzanera, the unexpected pirate connection adds another layer to a life already full of surprising turns.

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The Forward – How Roxy Music is connected to a Jewish pirate of the Caribbean
Source: The Forward, September 18, 2025