An unknown singer in Cuba last year. She was in her 60s or 70s. She was talking to a younger singer, about 20 years or so younger (her daughter?) who had just finished playing a set in a bar. The younger woman was describing something that was upsetting her, because she started to cry. The older woman picked up her guitar (which as it happens was badly out of tune) and sang a couple of verses of a song. The younger woman stopped crying.

It was the most direct and moving demonstration of what the point of music is I've ever experienced. I like to think that whatever the problem was, the words of the song offered a solution to it.

I'd seen the same old lady singing on the street two days before. Wish I'd spoken Spanish, because she was, with no exaggeration, the most interesting son singer I've heard. She sounded like Elizabeth Cotten, but croaky and Hispanic.