Esteemed jazz innovator Michal Urbaniak passed away on Saturday, December 20, at the age of 82 while hospitalized. His wife, Dorota Dosia Urbaniak, shared the news on his social media channels, stating, “He lived and expressed himself through music.” His former spouse, Urszula Dudziak, later disclosed that Urbaniak had been unconscious since a fall on Thursday, December 18.

“Today, Saturday, December 20th, at 5:00 PM, just two hours before Michał passed, we were by his side at the hospital: Kasia, Mika, Dosia, and I. We spoke to him softly and massaged his hands and feet. Although he never regained consciousness after his fall last Thursday, we believe he sensed our presence and left us peacefully. Sorrow is not eternal… LOVE IS!!!” This poignant farewell was accompanied by a nod to Urbaniak’s collaboration with the legendary Miles Davis on Davis’ 1986 album, Tutu.

In a 2019 interview, Urbaniak recounted how his collaboration with Miles Davis unfolded: “I reached out to Tommy LiPuma at his New York office, and he exclaimed, ‘Great timing! Miles is making a comeback and working on a new album.’”

“He mentioned that Miles had caught my performance on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, where I played my talking violin, and expressed a desire to include me on the record. Marcus Miller would be producing it.”

Urbaniak recalled querying Tommy about Miles’s exact words, to which LiPuma replied, ‘Hey Tommy, get me this Polish f****** fiddler, he’s got the sound!’ Throughout a career spanning over sixty years, Michal Urbaniak collaborated with titans like Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Billy Cobham, and Stéphane Grappelli, gracing stages such as Carnegie Hall and the Beacon Theatre in New York.

He also recorded dozens of albums under his own name and composed music for films and theatre. In 1992 he was placed among the genre’s top global performers by the influential jazz magazine DownBeat.

In 1971 he won the Grand Prix award for best soloist at the Montreux Jazz Festival and in 2016  he received Poland’s Golden Fryderyk lifetime achievement award.

Tributes flooded in as the news broke with friends and fans taking to Facebook to pay tribute. “Michal Urbaniak RIP. Your music and spirit will live on forever,” one wrote. “Farewell, Master… Thank you for the shared sounds, humor, inspiring conversations about music and your open heart. It was a great honor to stand on the same stage with you To the whole family and to you, Dorotka – we send our sincerest sympathies,” another added.

Meanwhile a third chimed in: “Michal Urbaniak has died . I was a teenage electric violin enthusiast in the 70 s , You had Jerry Goodman , You had Jean Luc Ponty , but Urbaniak ‘s sound was the one for me . Those records were a different sound world . R.I.P.”