Michal Urbaniak
b. 22 January 1943, Warsaw, Poland. Urbaniak learnt the violin from the age of six and took up the alto saxophone in his teens. He studied at the Academy of Music in Warsaw and although he started playing with dixieland style jazz bands, he quickly moved on to bop. He played with various bands including that of alto saxophonist Zbigniew Namyslowski while he continued to perform classical violin. In 1965 he moved to Scandinavia with a band which included vocalist Urzsula Dudziak whom he later married. In 1971 he won a scholarship to the Berklee College Of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He later led a band called Constellation In Warsaw before moving to New York in 1974. There, Urbaniak had a band called Fusion the music of which is enlivened by melodies and irregular rhythms derived from Polish folk music. He plays a personalized 5-string violin and violin synthesizer and also the lyricon, a saxophone like electronic instrument which triggers a synthesizer.