A fiery and dedicated improvisor and composer, saxophonist Idit Shner's latest quartet recording, 9 Short Stories, highlights her rich and ongoing relationship with pianist Josh Hanlon and drummer Stockton Helbing.

Along with bassist James Driscoll, the quartet tackles a program of Idit's compositions, all based in the jazz tradition but with influences ranging from traditional melodies & rhythms from Zimbabwe, to classical Arabic music, to the Latin-tinged grooves of McCoy Tyner from his early '70s recordings. For the album's lone standard, Billy Strayhorn's "Passion Flower," Shner declares her debt to one of jazz's definitive alto stylists with this haunting Ellington band staple, one of Duke's many feature numbers for Johnny Hodges.