[1] Urbaniak started his music education during high school in Łódź, Poland, and continued from 1961 in Warsaw in the violin class of Tadeusz Wroński.

There he created a band with Urszula Dudziak[1] and Wojciech Karolak, which gained considerable success and was later to be the starting point for the Michał Urbaniak Fusion.

After Urbaniak returned to Poland and the violin (which he abandoned for the saxophone during the time in Scandinavia), he created the Michał Urbaniak Group, to which he invited, among others, Urszula Dudziak (vocals), Adam Makowicz (piano), Pawel Jarzebski – bass and Czeslaw Bartkowski – drums They recorded their first international albums, Parathyphus B, Instinct and played in many festivals, including Jazz Jamboree in 1969–1972.

Recommended by John H. Hammond, Urbaniak signed a contract with Columbia Records, who published the West German album Super Constellation under the name Fusion.

Urbaniak has played with Billy Cobham, Buster Williams, Chick Corea, Harold Ivory Williams, Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard, George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Joe Zawinul, Kenny Barron, Larry Coryell, Lenny White, Marcus Miller, Quincy Jones, Ron Carter, Roy Haynes, Vladyslav Sendecki, Wayne Shorter, and Weather Report.