" data-original-title="" title="">Caroll Vanwelden has done. The comely Belgian pianist wanted to produce a new album of her own compositions. "One day I found a book of the sonnets I used 13 years ago when I worked with an Iranian composer who wanted to put Shakespeare on classical compositions" Vanwelden recalls. "I went through the pages sitting at my piano and stopped intuitively on lyrics that inspired me. I didn't try to understand their meaning. When I read Shakespeare, I hear melodies in my head."

The 16 pieces "came very fast, one after another, really amazing," the pianist further explains." She saved everything on her little R09 stereo recorder, and worked further from there. She's titled her new release Caroll Vanwelden sings Shakespeare Sonnets (Jazz 'n' Arts, 2012), because she wanted people to know she wasn't reciting them. She is adroitly backed by trumpeter/flugelhornist Thomas Siffling, double bassist Mini Schultz and percussionist Marcus Fuller. Vanwelden pronounces Elizabethan English well; still, it helps, on first listen, to look at the words as well. You can find them at Vanwelden's website.

Cabaret Music Evolves for Younger Fans

"Cabaret," once a style of music, has come to stand for both a medium and a location. "It can be jazz-driven, like that of Ann Calloway, or theatrically oriented, like that of most of the leading ladies headlining at 54 Below," writes Will Friedwald in The Wall Street Journal, referring to clubs in New York, London and Glasgow. The medium has long been linked with 70 to 80 year-old songs and fans of the same vintage. But it's evolving and attracting younger audiences. Veteran artist