As Tony Bennett approaches 93, let's hear it for the elders

CHICAGO - It's a question I've been hearing for decades, applied to any number of seasoned performers I've covered:

Why are they still working?

I heard it plenty when Frank Sinatra was deep into his 70s, still selling out arenas around the world. Also when Cab Calloway was in his 80s, joyously strutting up and down the stage snarling "Minnie the Moocher." Ditto septuagenarian jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, nonagenarian jazz trumpeter Doc Cheatham, and 89-year-old Arthur Rubinstein and 96-year-old Mieczyslaw Horszowski, both eminent classical pianists.

And, of course, now regarding singer Tony Bennett, who will turn 93 in August. The implication is that after a certain age, musicians no longer sound