Silva Screen is sad to hear of the passing of Polish jazz legend Michal Urbaniak.

He was literally instrumental in laying the foundation for the Silva Screen imprint HipBop. Created in early 1994 when he brought his groundbreaking jazz and rap band concept “Urbanator” to the New York offices of Silva Screen Records. Michal had been discouraged by the established jazz labels inability to cope with the rap content. Likewise the rap people who, despite the genres free use of jazz samples, couldn’t fully comprehend the jazz. The album that resulted was simply called “Urbanator” and proved that jazz and rap could blend seamlessly without recourse to samples or loops. From this beginning the  label became established as a diverse contemporary jazz, funk, fusion mix with a roster including guesting stellar names  Bob James, Chaka Khan, Herbie Hancock amongst others.

Michal played with the biggest jazz legends of all-time, such as George Benson, Lenny White, Wayne Shorter, Marcus Miller, Billy Cobham, Joe Zawinul, Ron Carter, Stéphane Grappelli and Miles Davis. His long career covered an incredible span of jazz styles and also writing music for films, plays and TV shows..