Urszula Dudziak (also known as Ursula Dudziak) was born on the 22 October 1943 in Straconka (now it is a quarter of Bielsko-Biała) and she stayed there up to the age of 4. Then, she moved with parents to Gubin and then again to Zielona Góra.


When she was a child she was studying the piano. She started singing in the secondary school under influence of Ella Fitzgerald. She was interested in jazz and she was listening to it from the radio.

She sang jazz standards and "evergreens". She worked with several amateur jazz bands from Zielona Góra. She made her professional debut in 1958 and then she was invited to the Krzysztof Komeda Band and in 1964 to the Edward Czerny Orchestra. Since 1964 to the end of the 80's she collaborated with Michał Urbaniak Band with whom she performed many times at Jazz Jamboree Festival in 1969-1972.

Initially she performed acoustic jazz and then she became fascinated with music that used voice converters. She used for the first time this device when she recorded in duo with Adam Makowicz Newborn Light (1972). This album was recorded for the American label Columbia and received maximal score of five stars in the prestigious American magazine "Down Beat".

In 1973 she lived with Michał Urbaniak in New York and participated in his artistic enterprises. Her performances solo as One Woman Show with using electronic devices gave her the title of the singer of 1979 year in "Los Angeles Times".

Since 1981 she has been working with international group Vocal Summit (guests: Bobby McFerrin, Jeanne Lee). She gave concerts and recorded with Gil Evans Orchestra and Archie Shepp Band. With the author's program Future Talk prepared with writer Jerzy Kosiński she performed in almost all countries of Europe, two Americas and Asia. She also presented the performance The Nature Is Leaving Us with her own music which was used after it as soundtrack for the movie.

She came back to Poland in 1985. There she performed in duo with Bobby McFerrin at Jazz Jamboree Festival in Warsaw. Than she started to appear in Poland very often. She has worked with Grażyna Auguścik with whom she has performed in Poland and the United States of America.

Her song Papaya (first recorded in 1976) was a smash hit in 2007 in Asia and Latin America and characteristic Papaya Dance was added to it.

Projects:

• "One Woman Show"
• "Vocal Summit"
• "Future Talk"

Selected discography:

• Newborn Light (1972)
• Super Constellation (1973)
• Atma (1974)
• Urszula (1976)
• Midnight Train (1977)
• Urbaniak (1977)
• Future Talk (1979)
  
  
  
  
• Magic Lady (1980)
• Ulla (1982)
• Sorrow Is Not Forever...But Love Is (1983)
• Magic Lady concert with Walk Away (1989)
• Jazz Unlimited (1993)
• Journey, Saturation (1994)
• And Life Goes On (2002)
• Painted Bird (2003)
  
  
  
  

Author: Marek Romański, January 2009.