Joe Zawinul is the patron saint of Austrian jazz, and his lavish club Birdland, located in the heart of downtown Vienna, is its cathedral. This live recording from Birdland showcases the deep palate of Zawinul’s tonal colors in vertiginous arrangements played by his electric quartet and the 15-piece WDR Big Band Koeln. The music ranges from the hypnotic pulse of “In a Silent Way” to the appropriately titled “Fast City,” played at a breakneck tempo with classic fusion intensity.

Zawinul’s genius is in the details such as the subtle eastern figures that emerge out of “Badia” into the Weather Report classic “Boogie Woogie Waltz,” or his sly synthesizer figures that can sound as ambient as distant human voices or as harrowing as infernal machines. Zawinul solos on every track, but his crafty interchanges with the full-throated dynamics of big band brass and reeds provide the most satisfying moments of the set. Zawinul’s compositions are famed for their striking melodic originality, providing plenty of room for Vince Mendoza’s arrangements to unfurl, especially on the swinging “Night Passage.” Karolina Strassmayer is the instrumental star of the band on alto saxophone, matching Zawinul’s coloratura with a gorgeous solo on “Black Market” and the soulful “March of the Lost Children.” Strassmayer is one of the only musicians on the session (besides Zawinul) whose playing is strong enough to move with calmness and grace against the relentless, surging flow of the band’s extremely aggressive tempos. The smooth contours of the band’s sound in a more relaxed stated are only fully explored in the beautiful ballad, “A Remark You Made.” The rest of the two-CD set is a thrilling roller coaster ride, musical excitement whose exuberance occasionally goes off the rails.