Michal Urbaniak: News

On 05.10.2009 Michal Urbaniak's album „Miles of Blue” was released. The album (with a title that is a characteristic for Urbaniak play on words) is a tribute to the art of the jazz god Miles Davis. The Artist recorded the album in cooperation with a number of distinguished musicians from New York and abroad. Michal Urbaniak, a New Yorker by choice, is the only violinist to have worked with the guru of world jazz – Michal Urbaniak. The album remained among the top five bestsellers on the european chain of music stores and within two months gained the status of the double Platinum Album.

On 6 June 2010, during a special concert at the amphitheatre of the Sowiński Park in the Wola district of Warsaw, Michał Urbaniak will receive the Platinum Album. The concert - under the title this time of "Miles & More" - open a new project for the Artist, involving a number of great musicians and artists of different generations. Work on the new album will initiate Michał Urbaniak's autumn concert tour, part of the cycle of Urbanator Days. Traditionally the Wola concert will be graced with the presence of many musicians of stature that Michał Urbaniak is accustomed to inviting to this type of event. In October last year (Jazz Jamboree) Urbaniak surprised the audience during a fantastically received tribute concert to Miles Davis. He invited on the stage the wildly popular rapper O.S.T.R. and the talented jazz singer Monika Borzym. A tried and tested musical combination will perform on 6 June, including Otto Williams, Troy Miller, Femi and other musicians well known to the Polish audiences. At the moment Michał Urbaniak is in New York, where preparations are in progress to the forthcoming release of his album. Many distinguished artists will participate in its recording like.. Xantone Blacq - keys & vocals Jan smoczynski - piano & keys Otto Williams – bas guitar Femi – guitar Troy Miller – drums And...more to be anounced...

I was 14 when Miles Davis became my hero, the successor to Winnetou – he became my hero for life. To this day he is the greatest role model as a muso (for me, musicians are divided into professional musicians and musos). A muso can be illiterate or can be a great composer and musician who plays music for the sake of music, because they love music. And professional musicians are those who will notice during the rehearsal that at 12 noon they've got a break. When Miles Davis died I already had more than ten pieces at the ready, but when I saw that everyone was making a Miles D album, I decided to pull out of this unhealthy competition. And the drafts, I've kept them to this day. This year – on August 17 it will be 50 years since the release of Davis's “Kind of Blue”. I decided to commemorate the album, the best-selling album in jazz history (quadruple platinum, 200,000 copies sold annually). And the album is still on top. If I were to go on a desert island, that would be the record I would take as the only one. Out of adoration for Miles and respect for musicians, who have played with me or with Miles, I decided to release the record after all and I called it „Miles Of Blue”.

50 lat upłynęło od czasu wydania „Kind Of Blue” Milesa Davisa. Ta najpopularniejsza, najbardziej uznana i najlepiej sprzedająca się płyta w historii jazzu należy do ulubionych płyt światowej sławy skrzypka Michała Urbaniaka. Ponoć gdyby artysta miał jechać na bezludną wyspę to właśnie tę płytę, jako jedyną, zabrałby ze sobą.

Po raz pierwszy Miles Davis usłyszał Urbaniaka w słynnym amerykańskim programie „Tonight Show”, prowadzonego w NBC przez Johnny’ego Garsona. To właśnie Garson powiedział o muzyce Urbaniaka, że : „ od czasów Stonesów to najświeższe i najciekawsze brzmienie, jakie słyszałem”. Gdy Davis zobaczył i usłyszał Urbaniaka w „Tonight Show” powiedział: „Give Me this polish fucking fiedler, he's got the sound”. Wkrótce po tym doszło do spotkania obu artystów przy nagraniu słynnej plyty „Tutu” w 1985 roku.

Po śmierci Milesa Davisa Michał Urbaniak miał przygotowane kilkanaście utworów w swoich aranżacjach, ale jak zobaczył, że każdy nagrywa płytę dla Davisa, wycofał się z tej konkurencji. Szkice zachował do dziś i właśnie niektóre z nich znalazły się na najnowszej płycie artysty „Miles Of Blue”, której premiera odbędzie się 5 października 2009 roku. Płyta powstała z uwielbienia dla Milesa i szacunku dla muzyków, którzy grali z Milesem Davisem i Michałem Urbaniakiem.

Pod tym samym tytułem 25 października w Sali Kongresowej w Warszawie z udziałem światowej sławy muzyków Michał Urbaniak zagra specjalny tribute dla Milesa.

„Przez większość kariery artystycznej miałem świetne wyczucie do młodych talentów. Większość moich młodych muzyków jako dorośli grali z Milesem, Weather Report czy Joe Zawinulem. Nigdy nie zwracałem uwagi, aby mieć wielkie nazwiska na swoich płytach, a raczej świetnych muzyków. Czas jednak zrobił swoje i moi młodzi muzycy stali się wielkimi nazwiskami”.

Wraz z Urbaniakiem zagrają: Tom Browne - trąbka, Dave Gilmore - gitara, Otto Williams - bas, Troy Miller - perkusja, rapper NATO i wielu innych specjalnie zaproszonych gości.

Podczas koncertu Michał Urbaniak zagra na swoich „talking violin”, o których mówi: „Grając na swoich skrzypcach , śpiewam przez specjalny mikrofon, znajdujący się przy ustach. Zmienia on barwy, jest czymś w rodzaju filtra. Grając po prostu śpiewam cały czas i w ten sposób uzyskuje „feeling jazzowy”, który tak bardzo kocham i kojarzę ze swoim graniem saksofonowym oraz z moimi ukochanymi śpiewaczkami jazzowymi”.

Podczas koncertu usłyszymy utwory z najnowszej płyty. Nie zabraknie także specjalnego wykonania „Don’t Lose Your Mind” z płyty „Tutu” i słynnej solówki Urbaniaka, która podbiła świat.

Famous vintage cd Michal Urbaniak Fusion III has beed released! Featurion artists like Ursula Dudziak, Anthony Jackson and Steve Gadd Cd has lot of challenging compositions by the leader and is available at CD Baby and lot of download shops around the world incuding iTunes! Famous album will also be released as hi-end vinyl release.

Warsaw, June 11.2007
To whom it may concern
The International Production Group UBX would like to invite you to participate in URBANATOR DAYS, which is an exciting undertaking addressed to musically talented youth, offering them a unique opportunity to debut their talent on stage with top professional jazz musicians. In Poland there are still far too few initiatives that support young talent. This project gives these talented youngsters a chance to work with real American and European musicians. URBANATOR DAYS attempts to build a bridge between these musicians, thereby presenting new skills and talents in an international forum.
URBANATOR DAYS consists of the following:
Day 1 (27.06.2007): an all-day music workshop lead by Michal Urbaniak and his six-man band from New York and London. During this workshop, the best young talent will be chosen to perform on stage with him and his band at the concert which will take place on the following day. The workshop will be held in the Wola School of Music in Warsaw. The professional artists will be giving lessons in violin, percussion, guitar, voice and keyboards. An internet site has been especially prepared to cover this event so that throughout the entire project the young musicians will be in contact with each other and will be able to learn through chat rooms and e-learning. Various materials will also be made available on this portal. A virtual record label will be formed to distribute CDs and mp3s. A booking agency and a platform for creating internet sites for these young musicians and bands will also be made available.
Day 2 (28.06.2007): at 18.00, there will be a concert in Park Sowińskiego (Elekcyjna 17 in the Wola District of Warsaw), which can comfortably seat 3000 guests. Michal Urbaniak’s URBANATOR band (with musicians from New York and London) will perform as well as other invited guests such as: Mika and November Project (a music group managed and promoted by the Awangarda Foundation. The concert will end with a jam session which will include the young musicians chosen at the workshops held the day before together with the URBANATOR band. The concert MC will be Michael Moritz.
Poland’s Minister of Culture Mr. K.M. Ujazdowski along with the Mayor of the Wola District of Warsaw shall be honorary patrons of this 2-day event.
Media Patrons: Radio PIN, onet.pl, Zycie Warszawy, TVP3 and Newsweek (to be conformed on Monda

Michal Urbaniak’s projekt URBANATOR consists of:


MICHAL CRAIG GORMAN - http://www.myspace.com/mmmikegorman
XANTONE BLACQ - http://www.myspace.com/xanblacq
DAVID ITAL - http://profile.myspace.com/daveital1
OTTO WILLIAMS - http://www.myspace.com/ottowilliams
TROY MILLER - http://www.myspace.com/troymillerdrummer
MICHAL URBANIAK - www.myspace/michalurbaniak

UbxNews
New York, 4/16/07

The New York record label, UBX Records is planning to release a two album series of Michal Urbaniak.
During his music career, Urbaniak has a played with the greatest jazz musicians. On his albums, you will find recordings with the participation of the most famous from the New York and world Jazz scene.
From the first series, „Jazz Legends“, belongs to the best of acoustic jazz.
Most of the recordings were recorded in various music studios and the famous Village Vanguard.
Shortly, the first album from the series „Jazz Legends“ will be released.
Besides Michal Urbaniak, playing on the violin, you will hear musicians such as:
Ted Dunbar –guitar, Kenny Barron – piano, Buster Williams and Roy Haynes – drums. On the following albums in the“Jazz Legends“ series, recordings of the following musicians will be presented alongside Michal Urbaniak.
On piano: Kenny Barron, Michael Gerber, Dave Kikowski , Jim Pryor
Bass players: Buster Williams, Ron Carter, Michael Moore
Drummers: Roy Haynes, Kenny Washington, Lenny White,
Guitarist: Ted Dunbar, Larry Coryell, Gene Bertoncini. On the second series „Fusion Legends“ you will hear such fantastic musicians as:
Marcus Miller, Lenny White, Omar Hakim, Victor Bailey, Steve Gadd, Steve Jordan, Basil Farrington, Larry Coryell, John Abercrombie, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Kirkland, Bernard, Wright, Don Blackman, Nicki Richards, Toots Thielmans, Tom Browne.




A few facts…
It’s important to remember, that in 1974, Michal Urbaniak’s band „Fusion“, played music rich in melody and irregular rhythm inspired by Urban Jazz & R&B music combined at times with his ethnic roots (polish folk music). Since those days, Michal plays on a five string violin especially made for him, on a synthesizer violin, saxophones and on a lyricon (an electric saxophone instrument). This original and creative,and very inovative music called Fusion was met with much enthusiasm in America and around the world. Michal Urbaniak , known as one of the pioneers of Fusion music became an extremely popular artist. This exceptionally well received album „Fusion“ for Columbia Records, made it possible for the artist/composer to continue recording albums in similar styles, such as; „Atma“ and „Fusion III“ which were the leading projects on Michal Urbaniak’s path of success both as Columbia recording artist and worldwide touring atraction. He easily promoted his new sound, the unusual combination of Polish folk with beloved black music and with electric rock sounds.. In 1975 – 1989, the group „Michal Urbaniak Fusion“ not only attracted manymusic lovers, fans, exceptional jazz musicians, but also created a community of young musicians that later played with artist’s such as Miles Davis, Whether Report, Santana and Sting. Michal, himself played of Miles Davis’s record „Tutu“ and preformed with him. These musicians among others will appear on the next series of records that will be released on Ubx, as „Fusion Legends“
It will be a series were one can find everything that shows how exceptional Michal Urbaniak ahd his friends are both in acoustic jazz and electric jazz fusion.
Coordinated with records releases, Ubx Booking is putting together preformances by the Michal Urbaniak band with his wonderful guests
By: Ubx Productions Inc. 145 West 58th St.#10B, New York, NY 10019, USA
Ph: +1646797300, Fx: +12122082422, Skype: urbguru or ubxteam
joe@ubx.net, info@ubx.net, www.urbaniak.com, www.urbanator.com

"For Lovers Only"!
This unusual Cd i recorded on my Tenor Sax an my MacIntosh Computer writing a all the songs This in my real "Sax Love"! Happy Valentines Day!
Nice, smooth and moody record. Happy Vallentines Day!

Oct 1st is the release date of new Mike Urbaniak's CD "Urbanator III. Cd features whole Urbanator Group and new guests like Mika, O.S.T.R., Solid, WWO, Muckhead, Lenny White, Mija,
Al Mac Dowell, Tom Browne, Mike Brecker, Randy Brecker, Herbie Hancock, Human Urchestra

Finaly enybody can read my written music! I'm working now on perfecting my scoring and speed of arranging and composing. I'm really happy that I can do all of it in my laptop and anywhere. Just updated to version 4. Just Great!