Since 1968, he has been cooperating with Mariolaine & Swinging Soul Corporation, Ślężanie and Ametysty, and in 1969 he began a two-year collaboration with the popular band Breakout, with whom he played several dozen concerts and recorded the album 70a.
In 1971, Skrzek founded the Silesian Blues Band together with Antimos Apostolis (guitar) and Jerzy Piotrowski (drums). In 1972-73, the trio collaborated with Czesław Niemen, participating in the recording of his albums Niemen Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Strange Is the World, and Ode to Venus. Since 1973, under the name SBB, the group has recorded a number of albums that have consolidated their position as one of the most interesting and original Polish progressive rock bands. SBB suspended its activity in 1980, reactivated successfully in 2000.
After the suspension of SBB, Skrzek recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums based mostly on electronic instruments. His debut album, Pamiętnik Karoliny (Karolina’s Diary, trans. MG) was recorded in spring 1978 in the Polish Radio studio in Opole. Two years later, he recorded Ojciec Chrzestny Dominika (Dominik’s Godfather, trans. MG), a two-part suite referring to the most recent achievements of electronic music and progressive rock. In 1981, Skrzek co-authored and composed Halina Frąckowiak’s album Ogród Luizy (Luiza’s Garden, trans. MG). In the same year, Józefina was released, largely inspired by the psychedelic rock of the turn of the 60s and 70s, recorded with the participation of other SBB musicians and saxophonists Andrzej Olejniczak and Tomasz Szukalski. With Szukalski, Skrzek recorded the avant-garde album Ambitus Extended in 1983. Concert album Podróż W Krainie Wyobraźni (Journey in the Land of Imagination, trans. MG), recorded in May 1984 at a planetarium in Chorzów, was just as experimental.
Since the late 1970s, Skrzek has been composing theatre, television and film music – among others for such films as Golem and The War of the Worlds: Next Century by Piotr Szulkin and Hands Up! by Jerzy Skolimowski. Together with director Lech Majewski he created the film and opera The Roe’s Room and the music to the films Angelus and The Garden of Earthly Delights, as well as Wojaczek and The Mill and the Cross. In 2001, he wrote music for the theatrical performance L’Improbable Rencontre at the Romain Rolland Theatre in Villejuif near Paris and illustrated the TVP series Serce Z Węgla (Heart of Coal, trans. MG).
Since the beginning of the eighties, Józef Skrzek has been giving increasingly frequent concerts in churches, using both traditional organs and electronic instruments. Since his 1987 album Kantata Maryjna (Marian Cantata, trans. MG), he has regularly released records inspired by religious themes. In turn, Wracam (I’m Coming Back, trans. MG; 1990) and Twój Dom Wschodzącego Słońca (Your House of the Rising Sun, trans. MG; 1993) contained cheerful songs close to pop music. He performed several times in the Jasna Góra Monastery.
Since 2003, he has been a regular guest of the SKIF festival in Sankt Petersburg. In 2005, he was awarded the Wojciech Korfanty Prize, and in 2008, he received Cegła Janoscha, an award granted by the readers of the Katowice edition of Gazeta Wyborcza. In 2013, he was awarded the Golden Fryderyk for his lifetime artistic achievements. In August 2017, together with J. Pijarowski, he was awarded the Tadeusz Miciński FENIKS Expressionist Award for artistic expression and formal innovation in his rich musical output. On 16th October 2017, he received the Gold Gloria Artis Medal.