I am saddened to learn that Tony Bennett has Alzheimer’s Disease. His family made the announcement today. CBS did this story

Tony Bennett is battling Alzheimer’s disease, but singing “is saving him,” his wife says

The family of 18-time Grammy winner Tony Bennett is opening up about a secret they’ve kept for more than four years. In an article Monday morning in AARP The Magazine, they reveal Bennett is battling Alzheimer’s disease, which robs people of their memories and cognitive functions.

This AARP Magazine story broke the news and is well worth your time to read.

Tony Bennett’s Battle With Alzheimer’s Disease

Neuroscience even today cannot explain how a man whose speaking voice has become so hesitant – whose memory of events, people and places has largely vanished – can, at the sound of a musical cue, lift his voice in song with such beauty and expression, except to say that music and singing emerge, as Levitin has pointed out, from areas of the brain quite distinct from those associated with speech and language.