Michał Urbaniak

Michał Urbaniak ( born January 22, 1943 in Warsaw) is an internationally renowned Polish jazz musicians.

Life

Urbaniak studied in Warsaw learned violin and saxophone as an autodidact. He played from 1962 to 1964 in the quintet of Krzysztof Komeda. After the dissolution of the band, he went to 1969 to Scandinavia, to form his own band after his return to Poland. Mid-1970s, he emigrated with his then wife, the jazz singer Urszula Dudziak, to the United States, where they could establish itself in the fusion scene. In 1986, he played as a guest musician album Tutu by Miles Davis, which won him international attention and finally brought recognition as one of the most important violinists of the modern jazz scene. Urbaniak attempted more albums under his own name, the full range of his repertoire illustrate (see discography ). As a composer of film scores he made a name for himself.

In 2004 he took on the highly acclaimed CD I Love You Jazz at his home in New York. On this CD Urbaniak experimented with a talk box. The result sounds something like that, as if he would " talk through " with his violin. Simple text passages can be indicated for the listener. On the recordings again worked with some stars of the New York jazz scene, including Kenny Barron, Lenny White, Ron Carter, Roy Haynes.

In addition, he was heard on albums with the Polish singer Czesław Niemen exception, so on the psychedelic album Niemen Enigmatic ( Muza, 1969) and on the New York album Mourners Rhapsody ( CBS 1974) with among others Niemen, Jan Hammer, Rick Laird and John Abercrombie. In the late eighties he produced with Niemen still a U.S. single and joined jazz festivals with him in Poland. In 2005, Urbaniak participated as a special guest at a Polish charity concert in favor of a children's aid project. This concert took place at the Paul Hall in Freiburg im Breisgau place and was broadcast worldwide via the Internet.

Discography (selection)

• Michal Urbaniak 's Group Live Recording, rec. live in Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, January 1971 ( Michal Urbaniak amplified violin, ss, ts, bs, Adam Makowicz p, Hohner Clavinett; Paweł Jarzębski amplified bass; Czesław Bartkowski dr, Polish Jazz vol.24, Lp: Muza Polskie Nagrania SX0733; CD Muza Polskie Nagrania PNCD 924 )
• New Violin Summit ( with Don " Sugarcane " Harris, Jean -Luc Ponty, Nipso Brantner, Terje Rypdal, Wolfgang Dauner, Neville Whitehead, Robert Wyatt ) ( 1972)
• Fusion ( 1974)
• "Body English " (1976) with Urzula Dudziak, Harold Ivory Williams, Joe Caro, Basil Fearrington, Steve Jordan, Bernard Kafka, Earl Crusher Bennett. Arista Records
• Urbaniak (1977 ) with Zbigniew Namyslovski, Urszula Dudziak, Kenny Kirkland, Tony Bunn and Lurenda Featherstone
• Songs For Poland (1989 )
• I Love You Jazz (2004)
• Urbanator III (2005)
• Jazz Legends # 1 (2006 )