captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> pelley: of all the things you trust every day, you want to know that your prescription medicine is safe. but this plant produced popular drugs for the u.s. that were too weak, too strong, contaminated, or mixed up on the production line. are you saying that different kinds of drugs were packed into the same bottle? >> yes. and that's shocking. >> pelley: sheryl eckard was a glaxosmithkline insider who says executives at the company kept shipping the drugs, even after they knew something had gone terribly wrong. >> he put his head down and put his hands over his face, and he

said, "oh, my god. oh, my god." ♪ ♪ >> safer: it's hard to believe that the boy wonder from new orleans who has been startling audiences since his teens is pushing 50. he's an american master. wynton marsalis and his jazz at lincoln center orchestra, arguably the best there is in america's most distinctive art form, an art they take round the world. we had the chance to travel with these cultural ambassadors to europe and to that forbidden city to most americans, havana. tonight on "60 minutes," a new year's treat with wynton and the guys. ( musical flourish )

( cheers and applause ) >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm byron pitts. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories and andy rooney tonight on "60 minutes." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at&t covers 97% of all americans. rethink possible.

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or 100 calories? with yoplait delights, now you can finally have both. two indulgently rich layers of chocolate and raspberry yogurt... and only 100 calories. >> pelley: of all the things that you trust every day, you want to believe that your prescription medicine is safe and effective. the pharmaceutical industry says that it follows the highest standards for quality. but in november, we found out just how much could go wrong at one of the world's largest drug makers.

a subsidiary of glaxosmithkline pleaded guilty to distributing adulterated drugs. there was reason to believe some of the medications were contaminated with bacteria, others were mislabeled, and some were too strong or not strong enough. it's likely that glaxo would have gotten away with it had it not been for a company insider. a tip from cheryl eckard set off a major federal investigation. she's never told the public what she saw inside glaxo, but tonight, she will. her story opens a rare window on how one company traded its good name for bad medicine. cheryl eckard worked in glaxo quality control, and over ten years, she'd risen to become a manager of global quality assurance. her job was to inspect plants, like this glaxo facility in north carolina, to make sure that the drugs had the right ingredients, the right potency, and met government standards for purity.

in 2002, eckard was assigned to help lead a quality assurance team to evaluate one of glaxo's most important plants, in cidra, puerto rico. 900 people worked here making 20 drugs for patients in the u.s. but eckard says that when she saw what was happening to some of the company's most popular drugs, she couldn't believe it. >> cheryl eckard: all the systems were broken, the facility was broken, the equipment was broken, the processes were broken. it was the worst thing i had run across in my career. >> pelley: the worst, because so many things behind these walls were going wrong at once. eckard says water used to make tablets was tainted with bacteria. failures on production lines made some drugs too strong, some not strong enough. and the employees were contaminating products, including the anti-bacterial ointment bactroban, which was made in a sealed tank to prevent contamination.

>> eckard: they were opening up the lid, and then they were sticking their body into the tank and scraping it with, like, a paddle. >> pelley: but this product is supposed to be free of bacteria. why would they do that? >> eckard: it saved money. >> pelley: as her team continued its evaluation of the plant, eckard says she discovered something much worse than contamination. because of failures on various production lines, she says that powerful medications were getting mixed up. are you saying that different kinds of drugs were packed into the same bottle? >> eckard: yes. and... and that's shocking. >> pelley: yes, it is. >> eckard: that's shocking. >> pelley: eckard says this chart that she produced for company executives shows the kinds of mix-ups that were happening at cidra. she identified nine, including avandia diabetes pills mixed in packages with over-the-counter tagamet antacids, and paxil anti-depressants mixed with the

avandia diabetes drug. when you saw these mix-ups happening, what did you do? >> eckard: i contacted the vice president of quality for north america, and i told him that he needed to shut down the factory and call the f.d.a. >> pelley: shut the whole thing down? >> eckard: right. i urged him to stop the trucks that were leaving the dock that day. >> pelley: what happened then? >> eckard: i went back to work and waited for the news that they had called the f.d.a. or that they had stopped shipments. and it didn't happen. >> pelley: eckard says, as the mix-ups continued, a pharmacist called the company with a story about a mix-up involving the powerful anti-depressant paxil in its ten-milligram dose. the patient was an eight-year- old boy. >> eckard: a grandmother came in to pick up this little boy's

prescription. and in front of the pharmacist, she opened up the bottle. she tore off the induction seal and she looked at it. and she became upset. and she said, "i knew it. his medicine has always been yellow. but last month, it was pink. and he's been so sick." >> pelley: and what did that mean, the yellow and the pink? >> eckard: paxil ten-milligram is yellow. it's not pink. >> pelley: there is a version of paxil that is pink. paxil cr is 25 milligrams. if that's what the pills were, the boy was getting two and a half times his prescribed dose. eckard says that she assigned one of her investigators to the case, and found that both paxil doses were made on one production line, which led her to a theory of how the mix-up could have happened. >> eckard: maybe there was still paxil in the hopper, the filling hopper, when they switched out the bottles and changed out the labels.

so in that batch, some of the first bottles that went through were labeled ten milligram when they were actually 25. >> pelley: she says she took her findings to the same vice president that she had asked to shut down the plant five months before. >> eckard: i took it and i handed it to him and i said to him, you know, "read this." and he put his... he put his head down and put his hands over his face and he said, "oh, my god, oh, my god." >> pelley: did they shut down the plant then? >> eckard: no, they filed a report with the f.d.a. that said that the mix-up was not real, and did not happen at the factory. we all knew, they all knew it was real. >> pelley: the glaxo report to the f.d.a. cheryl eckard is talking about said it was "extremely unlikely" the paxil mix-up occurred at cidra. we don't know what happened to the boy because drug incident reports don't contain names, but

the glaxo note to the f.d.a. said "there were no adverse reactions." the vice president that eckard says she spoke to is no longer with glaxo, and he declined to talk with us. glaxo denies eckard's allegations. and it denies that it ever lied to the f.d.a. in fact, the company was eager to tell us that it has learned from cidra. ian mccubbin is a senior vice president from glaxo headquarters in london. >> ian mccubbin: we regret what happened in cidra. but we've worked really, really hard to resolve those issues. we spend $600 million every year on make sure that our plant and equipment is state of the art. >> pelley: would you say that the company was chastened by all of this? >> mccubbin: no, i'd say the company was very disappointed that this occurred and that we regret that this occurred. but we've learned from it. and what you learn from, you become stronger. >> pelley: you have how many plants around world? >> mccubbin: we have around 80 plants around the world now. >> pelley: do any of them operate the way cidra did? >> mccubbin: absolutely not.

>> pelley: so how did cidra go wrong? >> mccubbin: they all operated to the same standard, to the same quality system that we had in place. the difference between cidra and all the rest of the plants is the effectiveness with which that quality system was implemented. it was much weaker, and that resulted in the compliance issues that occurred. >> pelley: cheryl eckard says that she was issuing warnings and no one was listening. >> mccubbin: i don't know cheryl eckard, and i don't all the details of her accusations. what i do know is that we were working with the f.d.a. before cheryl went to that plant. >> pelley: it was an f.d.a. inspection that first revealed problems at cidra, and that's why glaxo sent eckard's team in, to resolve those f.d.a. concerns. but eckard says she found much more than the f.d.a. did. f.d.a. inspections of drug plants are only occasional, so it's up to drug companies to police themselves. >> dr. jerry avorn: probably, most drugs are safe that people are taking, but there are scary

examples like this that certainly raise questions. >> pelley: dr. jerry avorn of harvard medical school is one of the nation's leading authorities on pharmaceuticals. he says that eckard's story is an extraordinary look at what can happen when there aren't enough investigators to follow up on the federal inspections. >> avorn: the fact that there were so many different kinds of problems, and that there were even other issues about diabetes drugs and antidepressants on the same line getting allegedly mixed together, the sterility issues. it speaks of a really pretty chaotic, out-of-control manufacturing process. this was not, apparently, one isolated incident. it just looks like nobody was minding the store at this plant. >> pelley: what do you say to someone who says, "well, the drug manufacturing process is very complicated, very hard to do. there are bound to be mistakes." >> avorn: just because something is complicated doesn't mean it's okay to get it wrong. we don't accept that of our brain surgeons or of our airlines, or of other complicated things in society. the reason we pay so much for drugs, more than any other

country, is that we expect that, in exchange for those high prices, the companies are going to actually manage their manufacturing processes carefully. >> pelley: cheryl eckard says her first warning to shut down the plant at cidra came in august, 2002. she continued to work, seven days a week, reporting to executives, but nothing seemed to be changing on the factory floor. and the frustration was taking its toll. >> eckard: the director of manufacturing at the factory, maybe he was the v.p. of manufacturing at the factory, he pulled me aside and said, "we can all tell that you've been crying. you come here every day and your eyes are swollen because you've been crying. so i want to ask you to stop that." and i said to him, "you know, i do cry. i cry at night. i cry in the morning. and what i don't understand is why i'm the only one. why aren't you crying?"

>> pelley: after eight months of reporting problems at cidra, eckard sent this summary to seven executives, detailing nine high-risk areas at the plant, including the mix-ups, the water contamination, and the problems with sterility. she warned that if the f.d.a. knew what the company knew, the government could seize the factory. weeks later, she was out of a job. glaxo said it was downsizing. still worried about patient safety, eckard took the same information she'd sent to her glaxo bosses and turned it over to the f.d.a. just as she had warned, federal agents executed a search warrant at the plant and ultimately seized defective drugs worth hundreds of millions of dollars. >> neil getnick: this case goes right to the heart of patient safety. >> pelley: neil getnick and lesley ann skillen are cheryl eckard's lawyers. and under the federal whistleblower law, they filed suit on behalf of the federal

government, claiming that glaxo had defrauded the taxpayers. how is this fraud against the u.s. government? >> getnick: pharmaceutical drugs are paid for by our medicare program for the elderly, by our medicaid program for the impoverished. and here we have a situation where hundreds of millions of dollars were paid for adulterated drugs through our medicaid programs. >> pelley: glaxo pleaded guilty to a felony. it admitted it distributed "adulterated drugs paxil cr, avandamet"-- a diabetes drug-- "kytril"-- a drug given to cancer patients-- "and bactroban." all together, the company paid $750 million to settle the criminal conviction and cheryl eckard's suit. can anything like this happen at glaxo again? >> mccubbin: i absolutely hope not. we will work really hard to resolve these issues and make sure that our quality management system is in place and robust. >> pelley: the plant at cidra is closed.

glaxo says no drugs made there are on the market today, and it says there is no evidence that anyone was hurt by the defective medications. under the whistleblower law, eckard was rewarded with a percentage of the millions that the government recovered in the fraud suit. her portion comes to $96 million. you know that there are people watching this interview who are saying, "well, she did it for the money." >> eckard: right. >> pelley: and to them, you say what? >> eckard: that i hope and i pray that their mothers and their brothers and their children have safer medicine today than they had before i filed that lawsuit. and i believe they will. right? i believe they will. ♪ ♪ you know how i feel i feel awesome.

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>> safer: as we bring in the new year, we thought we'd bring you some great music. he is an american master: wynton marsalis, at age 49, arguably the best known living jazz artist, and leader of the jazz at lincoln center orchestra, probably the best big band at work today. they're on the road constantly, bringing america's most distinctive art form to the world-- most recently, to london, berlin, and havana. we were lucky enough to tag along-- a joyous assignment, if there ever was one-- trying to get a sense of this band of brothers, their music, and their effect as unofficial ambassadors. ♪ ♪

marsalis is the leader of the band, but he's buried in the back row. it's interesting. when you guys take the stage, you're never front and center. >> wynton marsalis: no. i play fourth trumpet. that's my role. i like it. i'm comfortable playing in the trumpet section. it started because i can't really conduct. i'm not a good conductor. >> safer: he tried, until a brave member of the band delivered the verdict. >> marsalis: every time i would start conducting, if i would mess something up, he would look down at his music and go... that meant, "go get back in the trumpet section." ( laughs ) >> safer: and there wynton marsalis stays, storming his way through some of the most difficult, hair-raising music in the jazz repertoire. ♪ ♪ >> marsalis: i like pressure. i like that. i like the challenge. i don't have a problem with it at all.

♪ ♪ i like the feeling of nervousness. i like the feeling that something counts. and i like to be tested. >> safer: soloing on tunes like this, a bass player said many years ago, is like trying to change the fan belt on your car with the engine running. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> marsalis: man, when you're playing, and you're playing with other people, it's such a combination of emotion, it's so intense. and when you make a tender statement or something's real sweet and you just caress a note, that takes more intensity. it's powerful. ♪ ♪ ( musical flourish ) ( cheers and applause ) >> safer: it's hard to believe the boy wonder from new orleans, who's been startling both jazz and classical audiences since his teens, is now pushing 50.

he's won nine grammys, and a pulitzer prize for music, and logged more miles around the world than your average secretary of state. you've spent 30 years-- since you were a teenager-- in the music business. that makes you, in a certain way, a very young elder statesman. >> marsalis: i don't feel like that. i mean, they will tease me, called me an old man since i was in my late 20s. >> safer: it was his old man, ellis, a pianist, a new orleans legend, who passed the jazz gene on to wynton and three of his five brothers. wynton himself, who's never married, has four children. back in 1995, this young "old man" sat down with our late colleague, ed bradley, to talk about his talent. >> ed bradley: how have you changed over the last 15 years of playing out here every day?

>> marsalis: oh, man, a lot. i mean, i'm calmer. when i was young, i was always excited, you know? "got to do it today." and i was always paranoid about not ever being able to play good enough, you know. never being able to play good enough. ♪ ♪ ( cheers and applause ) >> safer: i'm going to ask you the same question that our friend ed bradley asked you 15 years ago. how's your playing changed in the years since? >> marsalis: i think just a natural wisdom that comes with age. ♪ ♪

mostly, i think i have a different type of weight in my sound. in just the 15 years, i know more music. so when i'm playing, i feel like it reflects a deeper knowledge. i think i hear better, too. ♪ ♪ >> safer: their mission-- his and the band's-- is to keep jazz alive, writing new music and paying homage to the treasures of the past. >> marsalis let me hear the brass at letter "q." >> safer: like marsalis, most of his lincoln center musicians were classically trained, equally at home with bach and the blues. they come from big cities and small towns-- youngsters like pianist dan nimmer, 28, and veterans like joe temperley, an 81-year-old scotsman. ♪ ♪ >> marsalis: when you play in a big band, you sacrifice a lot.

we have some of the greatest soloists. they know they're going to play one solo a night. it's a tremendous sacrifice. >> safer: one night, you'll find them at new york's historic apollo theater, playing the score for a silent movie about trumpeter louis armstrong. the next night, who knows? >> marsalis: we've played everywhere from prisons to parks, picnics, old folks homes and nursery schools, on the subway. i spend more time on the road than at home. i love to be in a different place. >> safer: you have a certain problem with flying, though, don't you? >> marsalis: i'm afraid of that. that makes it more difficult. >> safer: but you travel across this country... >> marsalis: i travel across the country. >> safer: ...by car. you won't get on a plane. >> marsalis: i love it, too. i get to stop at people's homes. i get to get good meals. i get to connect with all the people i've known. >> safer: he took to the car after a white-knuckle flight years ago. traveling overseas, though, he has no choice but to bite the bullet and fly. >> marsalis: i don't really have to steel myself, especially if i'm with my guys. then, they're teasing me the whole time.

so i have to... >> safer: put on a brave face. >> marsalis: ...have to act like i'm not afraid of it. but some of the ones that are teasing me are afraid, too. so we're all acting. ( laughs ) ♪ ♪ >> safer: it's tuesday, so it must be london. wherever they travel, marsalis and company are hailed as america's best. and local music royalty, like rocker eric clapton, come to pay their respects. and chatting in the shadow of the tower bridge, marsalis says that, for all his renown and decades of experience, his baby- face gets in the way. like, this trumpet player walks into a bar and... >> marsalis: and the young lady said, "well, sir, we've got to see some i.d." ( laughter ) so, i'm laughing, i'm saying "my sons, they're old enough to drink." i'm like, "these are my kids." and she says, "well, i can't. i've got to see some i.d., sir." and they just shake their heads and say, "boy." >> safer: somebody was pulling your leg. >> marsalis: no, man. i'm telling you. >> safer: he is a walking encyclopedia of jazz history,

the legends and their music. the london concerts focus on jazz giants of the past, their work a revelation to listeners who seldom experience the power of a big band at full throttle. there's music from the 1920s by the deliciously named jelly roll morton. ♪ ♪ >> marsalis: raconteur, pool shark. the first great composer of jazz. ♪ ♪ >> safer: there is the music of benny carter, a founding father of the big band sound. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> marsalis: he is a great arranger and composer, great gentleman. we had the privilege of playing under him. but also a guy who could whip

some behind if it needed to be whipped. >> safer: and the maestro himself, duke ellington... >> marsalis: the master from washington, d.c. >> safer: ...to marsalis and many others, the greatest american composer ever. >> marsalis: the broadest variety of pieces, the greatest depth of insight into the nature of the american character. a lover of our country and its people. >> safer: a quote from duke ellington, who says "by and large, jazz is like the kind of man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with." >> marsalis: well, that's true, too. it deals with matters of romance. it deals with sexual things. >> safer: there is a certain seductive nature to the music. >> marsalis: man, if you don't have that, your music is not worth listening to. yeah, you have to have that edge. you have to have that sexuality, that sensuality. you have to have that primitive feeling.

and the more primitive you have... the more refined your concert is, the more primitive you have to be. ♪ ♪ >> safer: practically from childhood, he's worked back and forth between jazz and classical music. his latest composition, "the swing symphony," combines the two. the lincoln center band and the berlin philharmonic played the premiere-- a survey of how american jazz evolved, with echoes of ellington, charlie parker and other jazz greats. ♪ ♪ does it sadden you that, for the most part, young people may not even know who you're talking about when you say "charlie parker" or "duke ellington"? >> marsalis: it saddens me that people my age may not know that. and it's a comment on the failure of our education system to deal with cultural education. not just duke ellington-- walt whitman, the list goes on and on.

so it saddens me for us as a nation. because we have such a rich cultural heritage, and we would be so much the better for it and we would make such better decisions if we understood what brings us together. >> safer: jazz at lincoln center does its part to keep the heritage alive, bringing high school bands to new york for classes with the pros, and for a chance to strut their stuff, beneath the sophisticated eye of ellington himself. but these are the lucky ones. across most of the country, cultural programs in the schools range from spotty to nonexistent. >> marsalis: the arts are our collective human heritage. you're a better person if you know what shakespeare was talking about, if you know what beethoven struggled with, if you know about matisse. if you know what louis armstrong actually sang through his horn, you're better. because it's just, like, you get to speak with the wisest people who ever lived. >> safer: maestro marsalis speaks his universal language

with his band, swinging in the rain with marsalis sounding for all the world like louis armstrong, new orleans' other favorite son. but this is london. it's a moment that tells you all you need to know about the music's infectious appeal. >> marsalis: i want us to give 100% all the time. we know that we're here to serve-- serve the music and to serve everyone who comes to check our music out. ♪ ♪ ( cheers and applause ) >> safer: when we come back, we'll be checking in with the band as it moves on to that forbidden city to most americans, havana. pumpkin pie!

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both on the gulf of mexico, their climates sultry, their cultures exotic. the french built new orleans as the spanish built havana-- on the backs of african slaves, whose rhythms are the living pulse of both afro-american and afro-cuban music. so when new orleans native wynton marsalis took his jazz at lincoln center orchestra to havana, it was a meeting of musical minds, a musical bridge over the troubled waters that have separated the united states and cuba for half a century. ♪ ♪ from the band's very first stop, it was obvious this would be a hot visit, in more ways than one.

we're in havana's rumba palace. marsalis and his musicians are just off the plane-- here tonight not to perform, but to acclimate. >> marsalis: cuba, that's like one of your cousins. they do their thing, they have their way of dancing, their way of cooking-- you know, red beans and rice, the kind of food that we have. >> safer: the great cuban musician compay segundo once said it all-- "cubans are frantic when it comes to appreciating music." their moves aren't so bad, either. ♪ ♪ the rumba palace crowd partied long into the night. soon, it would be the americans' turn to show their stuff... ...with an old-fashioned new orleans street parade, with a gaggle of music students in tow. spreading that timeless new orleans rule of life-- let the good times roll.

>> marsalis: the music touches people, the students. if you're receptive to it and you have a little bit of it, you want it. ♪ ♪ >> safer: havana, of course, is the city of the brothers castro; of che, the cha-cha-cha, and the classic chevys, a city still off limits to most americans. but a city where cubans nearly broke down the doors to hear the american music. ♪ ♪ and where trumpeter marcus printup and the rest of the band nearly blew the roof off. ♪ ♪ it's the african rhythm that drives the music on both sides of the gulf. wandering through old havana, the heart of the city going back 500 years, we got a lesson in clave, the basic beats. >> marsalis: in new orleans, our clave goes...

>> safer: and the havana beat, laid down by marsalis's bass player, carlos henriquez. put them together and they fit like beans and rice. >> carlos henriquez: it's unbelievable, right, how that works. they have it. i mean, it's all african. >> safer: and the bedrock of it all, from africa to cuba to america, are the drums. the band's drummer, ali jackson, calls it a kind of musical d.n.a. >> ali jackson: the drums represent the people and where they're from. and you would never lose sight of where you're from because it lives through the music. ♪ ♪ >> safer: and the music was non- stop. ♪ ♪

havana was hooked. for five grueling days, the band played a series of concerts and jam sessions with the best of cuba's musicians, young and old; among them, evelyn suarez. ♪ ♪ >> marsalis: what i loved about her was the type of passionate intensity that comes with being very serious about sounding good. they just have a lot of people who can play. >> safer: the lincoln center band is an engaging and thoughtful group, fiercely competitive, yet each others' biggest fans. as ted nash solos, just watch walter blanding. >> walter blanding: we all get along. we fight and stuff, and things get a little crazy sometimes, but in the end, we all know why we're here. >> safer: nash and blanding have been on the road with marsalis for years-- a blur of airplanes,

hotel rooms and 18-hour days. nash is the band's official flip-cam photographer. >> ted nash: i'm here and it's beautiful. there are palm trees everywhere. i'm with morley safer and we're live on "60 minutes." ( laughter ) >> safer: it is a band that is on time, sober, and committed to the music. but old stereotypes die hard. >> blanding: i think people have a conception that a jazz musician is like from the 1930s or '40s, back in the days where they all took drugs and these kind of things. and i think we're at a different time now, where we're more serious about what we're doing... >> nash: and we're nerds. >> blanding: yeah, well... >> nash: i mean, we're... no, i mean... >> blanding: ...that could be one way of looking at it. >> safer: as for their leader, from the day he arrived, marsalis was the toast of havana, making the rounds of music schools, trying his fractured spanish on admiring bystanders. and stopping for a café cubano,

talking about a key ingredient of jazz improvisation-- taking chances. how important and how valuable are mistakes? >> marsalis: very important, because if you're not making mistakes, you not trying. that is the art of jazz. it's an art of negotiation, of communication. >> safer: to band member victor goines, who's also from new orleans, the attention marsalis gets is no surprise. >> victor goines: we went to kindergarten together. >> safer: kindergarten? >> goines: kindergarten. >> safer: what was he like then? >> goines: he was always a standout from the rest, i will say. >> safer: a musical standout who sets the pace for the band in another way, as well. >> jackson: he works harder than anybody i know. no question. ♪ ♪ >> safer: a jam session with local musicians starts at dusk and goes well into the night. and any time, anywhere, band

members give master classes in the fine art of swing. ♪ ♪ at the band's hotel, a young musician named shaula ortega shows up with her husband and baby. she wants ted nash to show her how to coax that distinctive jazz sound out of her horn. ♪ ♪ they repair to the hotel bar, other band members join in, and soon, she's bending the blue notes just like the pros. ♪ ♪ >> nash: it's so beautiful to travel, because we get to mix with people. maybe at a point when we would normally be getting kind of worn out and our batteries run down, i mean, i think we get kind of recharged a little bit from the energy of the people.

>> safer: in a havana restaurant, to the accompaniment of birds-- exotic and domestic-- plus one very hip cat, we renewed acquaintance with bass player carlos henriquez. the cuban audience-- what do you make of it? >> henriquez: this audience is very smart. and they listen to details. and that's... that's, very deep. >> safer: we go back a ways with carlos. you've said that music is going to be your ticket out of the south bronx. >> henriquez: yes. >> safer: ticket to where? >> henriquez: to fame, i guess. that's what i want, fame. >> safer: he was a 14-year-old bass and guitar player when we first met him in 1994, on a story about inner city kids getting free lessons at juilliard, new york's famous music school. his mother made him get in the program and stick with it. as he progressed during his teens, word spread among musicians. >> marsalis: and they would always say, "look out for

carlito. look out for carlito." >> safer: he joined the band 12 years ago, and served as its co- maestro in cuba, leading rehearsals and announcing the tunes, including some he wrote and arranged. >> henriquez: i just wish my mother was around to see this, you know, and she would have been a happy, you know, a happy lady. >> safer: inevitably, the elephant in the room-- politics-- comes up. at a press conference, marsalis is asked about relations between the u.s. and cuba, and sidesteps the issue, saying, essentially, that's not his job. >> marsalis: you know, could i give you a barbershop, stand on the street corner, yeah, that's what i think? of course i could do that. but put me in the position to have to solve it, all of a sudden... like my daddy used to say, "you'd be looking at a football game or something. you comment on what somebody should've done." he'd say, "i've seen you play ball." that's all you got to say. >> safer: there is no official diplomatic recognition of cuba, but there is something called the american interest section

housed in the old u.s. embassy, with about 50 state department employees-- sort of non-diplomat diplomats, exercising both very quiet, and sometimes very melodious, diplomacy. ♪ ♪ at the old u.s. ambassador's residence, a party for marsalis and company, and cuban musicians and artists, hosted by the non- ambassador ambassador. call it "cultural diplomacy"-- no rhetoric allowed. ( cheers and applause ) havana itself has become an exquisite corpse, a gorgeous city in ruins-- from neglect, poverty, the cruel salt air; the capital of an island too broke, too distracted by shifting priorities and political jockeying to do much about it.

still, the country is much more than yet another graveyard of the failed socialist experiment. the cuban psyche is so deeply rooted in music that, in a way, politics become irrelevant. at the national school of music, marsalis and the kids were all in the same groove. ( cheers and applause ) this new generation-- their political freedom may be on hold, but musical freedom is still a wondrous thing. ♪ ♪ you've talked about how music transcends politics. do you see that in cuba, that the music has some... i don't know, liberating effect, or what? >> marsalis: i see that about music and the arts everywhere. because we create community.

and we speak to the human soul. ♪ ♪ >> safer: it's always dangerous to draw sweeping conclusions from events like this. suffice it to say that, with the jazz at lincoln center band in town, for five nights, cuba and the united states were speaking the same language. ♪ ♪ ( musical flourish ) ( cheers and applause ) for constipation relief... nothing works better than miralax.

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>> kroft: now, a few minutes with andy rooney. >> rooney: happy new year to everyone watching, or everyone not watching, for that matter. the necessity people feel to have fun on new year's eve irritates me because i'm not good at having it myself. a little fun goes a long way, and very often, fun is not what people feel like having anyway. there's just so much fun i want, and there are ways i like to spend my time besides having it. for example, i'd include sleeping as one of the other ways to enjoy myself.

for as long as i can remember, i have been going to the same new year's eve party to have fun with the same people. i like seeing those old friends, but it's that fun part of new year's eve i'm not too keen on. someone usually sings "auld lang syne" at midnight, and i'm never sure what "auld lang syne" means, anyway. people blow horns and yell when the ball drops in times square. i don't feel any urge to yell; i feel like going home. there are always people who are left out of the new year's eve fun. i'll bet there are as many people home alone as there are revelers having fun, whatever a "reveler" is. i just wish i could tell people at home how lucky they are. they can see new year's eve on television, think their own thoughts, or not think anything if they don't want to. they can get up and go to the refrigerator and have a coke instead of champagne if they hate champagne. i'll bet a lot of people do go to bed at 10:30.

and that's what i'd like to do next new year's eve, so don't call me at midnight. i'll be fast asleep. >> kroft: i'm steve kroft. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." [scraping] [piano keys banging] [scraping] [horns honking] with deposits in your engine, it can feel like something's holding your car back. let me guess, 16.

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