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Austrian-American Glawischnig excels as a support player, pumping out the crucial heartbeat of the music from the background. It’s a role he’s expertly filled over the years for the likes of James Moody, Ray Barretto, and Stefon Harris. The bassist cut his teeth, though, as a long-time collaborator of Puerto Rican saxophonist David Sanchez, and it’s in a potent New York scene of post-Latin-jazz heavies that Glawischnig has thrived—it’s partly why McCaslin used the bassist on records like Soar and In Pursuit, which integrate a matrix of Latin and South American rhythms.
Yet ultimately it’s about finding new platforms for improvisation. Glawischnig takes some gorgeous solos, such as the lyric turn his improvisation embraces on the ballad “Set to Sea,” but more often than not he’s content to lay down that tricky pulse. He composed all nine of the album’s pieces and while none of them really breaks any new ground, they’re all highly functional for the purposes of this band.
