WOMAD

Roy Paci & Aretuska

From Italy

Sometimes the substitute can come off the bench, put in a match-stealing performance and snatch the headlines from the bigger names. And that’s what’s happening with Roy Paci. After a career largely defined by a role as a sideman for bigger lights (people like Zap Mama, Trilok Gurtu and Macaco), it was only when he teamed up with Manu Chao that this Sicilian trumpeter’s career began to really fly. As a fixture of Chao’s band Radio Bemba, Roy chalked up a stamina-sapping 100+ gigs during 2001 alone. Then came the arrival of his band Aretuska who, now three albums to the good, have proved that the vocabulary of Jamaican music translates into many different languages. On a bed of ska and rocksteady rhythms, Aretuska reveal Roy’s lifelong touch and taste for jazz. But this isn’t the jazz of smoky rooms inhabited by chin-stroking anoraks – this is jazz bathed in sunshine and wearing an ever-present smile. It also comes with a clear Mediterranean postmark, often featuring Roy’s skanking overhauls of traditional tunes from his home island. The whole story reminds us football-lovers of another diminutive Sicilian who, 15 years ago, came out of nowhere to captivate us all. And here’s hoping Roy Paci hits the target just like ‘Toto’ Schillaci.