News of Urbaniak’s death was announced on his official social media accounts, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
His wife, Dorota Dosia Urbaniak, wrote that he "lived and expressed himself through music."
Urbaniak was one of Poland’s best-known jazz musicians, acclaimed as both a violinist and saxophonist.
He gained international recognition for his work with jazz legend Miles Davis, appearing on Davis’ 1986 album Tutu, and for his role as a co-creator of jazz fusion, blending jazz with rock, funk, hip-hop and electronic music.
Over a career spanning more than six decades, Urbaniak recorded dozens of albums under his own name and composed music for films and theatre.
He collaborated with leading figures of world jazz, including Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Billy Cobham and Stéphane Grappelli, and performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Beacon Theatre in New York.
In 1992, the influential jazz magazine DownBeat ranked Urbaniak first in five categories, placing him among the genre's top global performers.
He also won the Grand Prix award for best soloist at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1971 and received Poland's Golden Fryderyk lifetime achievement award in 2016.
Urbaniak was also known as an innovator. He played a custom-designed five-string electric violin, built to his own specifications.
He led and composed for numerous projects, including Jazz Legends, Fusion, Urbanator, Urbanizer and UrbSymphony.
Born in Warsaw on January 22, 1943 to a seamstress and a weaver, Urbaniak grew up in the central city of Łódź. He became interested in jazz at the age of six after hearing Louis Armstrong’s "Mack the Knife" on the US-funded Voice of America radio station.
He persuaded his mother to buy him a saxophone and spent his free time practicing and performing in local bands.
Although trained formally as a violinist, Urbaniak began playing jazz clubs while still in music high school. He performed with saxophonist Zbigniew Namysłowski's Jazz Rockers, appearing at Poland’s prestigious Jazz Jamboree festival in 1961.
In 1962, he travelled to New York with the quintet led by Andrzej Trzaskowski, marking his first encounter with the global jazz scene.
After returning to Poland, he joined pianist Krzysztof Komeda’s group and later co-founded a band with vocalist Urszula Dudziak, who later became his wife. The couple divorced in the 1980s.
Urbaniak released his debut album, Urbaniak’s Orchestra, in 1968, but suffered a heart attack the following year at the age of 29.
In 1973, he moved permanently to New York, signing with Columbia Records and recording albums such as Atma and Fusion III.
Michał Urbaniak. Photo: Wojciech Kusiński/Polish Radio
In addition to Tutu, Urbaniak performed and recorded with musicians including Chick Corea, Elvin Jones and the band Weather Report.
He also composed award-winning film scores, earning top prizes at Poland’s Gdynia Film Festival for The Debt, Farewell to Autumn and Eden.
Throughout his work, Urbaniak remained committed to musical experimentation, fusing jazz with folk, classical, rock and hip-hop influences, and mentoring younger generations of musicians.
He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of Polish jazz.
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Source: IAR, polskieradio24.pl, trojka.polskieradio.pl, PAP