Drink organic.
Our favourite beer at the moment comes from the Black Isle Brewery based near Inverness in Scotland, currently the only organic brewery in that country. The quality of their ingredients and the care they take in brewing is evident in the taste of their marvellous beers.
The brewery produces a great range of core beers from lager through to porter and an array of specials including an Imperial Stout named ‘Hibernator’ (Sam Smiths brewery in Yorkshire also do a great Imperial) They also produce a stronger than an elephant beer named ‘The Big Sleep’. As their website points out ‘The Big Sleep’ is not the gangster’s euphemism for death. It is instead a reference to the long Scottish winter (the label features a sleeping bear in hibernation) – just the climate for a glass of this strong beer! Our own winters can be pretty grim and so we will have to order a bottle or two for later in the year!
They have an internet shop where you can buy their beer and other merchandise. Brewery visits can also be arranged.
Their website is at https://www.blackislebrewery.com
Highly recommended.
As the brewery is based in Scotland and as we are pretty near to Salford here in NW England (also a great place for some truly original beers especially the Pomona Island Brew Co see https://www.pomonaislandbrew.co.uk) we thought we’d link you a song by the Anglo-Scot, Ewan MacColl. Born in Salford to Scottish parents he was the author of the much loved song ‘Dirty Old Town’. Although highly popular in Ireland, having been covered by the Dubliners and the Pogues, the song is not actually about the Emerald Isle itself but is actually about Salford https://www.irishpost.com/entertainment/dirty-old-town-is-about-england-not-ireland-as-secrets-about-famous-pogues-and-dubliners-song-are-revealed-209720.
Euan MacColl
The song has been adopted and adapted by fans of near by Liverpool FC to sing the praises of their Dutch maestro, Virgil Van Dijk.
Drink organic.
LA MALANGA
Malanga as metaphor
Superimposition was a later Eddie Palmieri album with a track named ‘La Malanga’ although the vegetable serves as a more explicit metaphor in this song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH4ZXqEMBxI
Se acabó ya la malanga y no puedo comer
No sé lo que hacer, no puedo come
Que si no puedo jamar
Oye que hambre me da.
Dame malanga mamá
Mira quiero malanga
The great vibes player, Bobby Hutcherson, cut a version of this song on his latin music influenced ‘Montara’ album (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgWAOU-ATVU). The cover photograph is an exhibit from the wonderful Gold Museum in Bogota which you should try and visit if you are ever in that city.
MALANGA AMARILLA
Yellow malanga and Cuban jam
Staying with the malanga theme, the late Cuban double bass player Cachao recorded the benchmark ‘Malanga Amarilla’ in 1957 as a part of the famous ‘Cuban Jam Sessions’ series of recordings at Panart studios (later the national studio and record label ‘Egrem’) which were made with the very best Havana musicians after they had finished playing the local clubs very late at night orearly in the morning if you prefer. A series of five records were released with Cachao’s superb ‘Cuban Jam Sessions In Minature’ his debut album and one of his very best. The album featured the famous ‘Malanga Amarilla’ with his brother Orestes López on piano on this recording. The two brothers were major innovators and were credited with the mambo.
Malanga Amarilla was later covered by the Colombian singer Toto La Momposina https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmzyR07cbYY . As her name suggests, she is from the city of Mompox on the Carribean coast.
Staying with Colombia, the song was also cut by La Sonora Carrulseles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WQ916dNFgM
Malanga Amarilla was also covered by the wonderful El Gran Combo of Puerto Rico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnIeXrnR3f0
MALANGA, TARO AND PATRA
Malanga is part of the Aracere species which includes Taro, a similar root vegetable. Colocasia Aracere is a tropical plant mainly known for its edible tubers known as taro, dasheen, malanga, eddo and cocoyam depending on the region.
Patra is a dish from Gujarat in India and it is one of our favourites. It is made from Colocasia leaves, gram flour and spices. A great recipe is located here if you want to try and make this dish yourself https://www.tarladalal.com/patra-gujarati-patra-alu-vadi-33322r
ONE ONE COCO FULL BASKET
The root vegetable Taro (aka Dasheen) of the Colocasia family is also called ‘Coco’ in Jamaica (‘Malanga’ in Cuba).
A great video on root vegetables in Jamaica is here:-
The vegetable is mentioned in the Jamaican proverb ‘one one coco full basket’ which roughly interpreted means that success doesn’t come quickly and easily but is a gradual process just as gathering and filling a basket with coco is undertaken one item at a time.
You can hear this old proverb in the lyrics of ‘One one coco’, an early track by the legendary reggae star Gregory Isaacs. Isaac’s cut the tune for producer Gussie Clarke near the start of his career as a singer in the early 70’s. In a typically masterful performance Isaacs sings:
So go on and have your fun
Lord knows
I’ll work and wait till my day come
Cos any man who try hard will make it
Just practice
One one coco full basket
This was not the only proverb in the song as the lyrics go on to note:
Cause what you need now
I really ain’t got
But old time people say
Every dog have him four o’clock
‘Every dog have him four o’clock’ means ‘every dog has his day’ i.e. even the humblest person has their moment of glory.
The Isaac’s track was used as the basis for Big Youth’s ‘One of these fine days’ from the ground breaking ‘Screaming Target’ album around the same time. Like Isaac’s Big Youth was more or less at the start of his career at this time going on to considerable fame later on in the Seventies, especially with his album ‘Dreadlocks Dread’, our own favorite from the man.
Producer Gussie Clarke provides the version (but not a dub as it is a ‘straight from the desk’ instrumental).
Is it our imagination or does the tape slow down towards the end of this track?
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