I agree. He's the kind of player that wows you with solos on other people's records. But he is good at that (I'm thinking of McCoy Tyner's early 70s stuff, obviously).
I think what I like about this record is exactly what you point to: that Lawrence sets the mood and then just plays like one of the group, and the group plays well.
I'm not sure that any of his other records work out quite as well.
He's still alive and quite active on twitter, by the way.