Pinoy bassist part of Grammy-nominated album

A Singapore-based Filipino musician, Duke Purisima, is part of the production team that put together Arun Shenoy’s “Rumbadoodle” album, which has been nominated in the Best Pop Instrumental Album category at the upcoming 55th Annual Grammy Awards. Purisima, a native of San Pedro, Laguna, wrote and arranged some of the tracks in the Indian musician’s debut world fusion record. “Being nominated in the prestigious Grammy Awards is already a great achievement for me, as well as the [entire ‘Rumbadoodle’] team. This is the recognition I have been dreaming of,” Purisima told GMA News Online in an email. “I was happy to see our hard work has finally paid off,” he said.l The other nominees in the Best Pop Instrumental Album category are:

• Chris Botti (“Impressions”),
• Larry Carlton (“Four Hands & a Heart” Volume 1),
• Dave Koz (“Live at the Blue Note Tokyo”), and
• Gerald Albright and Norman Brown (“24/7”).

Purisima will join Shenoy in Los Angeles for the awards night on February 10. Opportunities in the Lion City Working as a musician in Singapore in the last five years has opened many doors for this part-time IT consultant. “Singapore gave me the opportunity to meet and work with musicians from different sides of the world.  Playing with diversely talented people for the past 5 years allowed me to enhance my musical talent, polish my style, and increase my network in the music industry,” Purisima said. Aside from Shenoy, Purisima has also worked with the American rock artist Tanadra on her debut EP, which launched the well-reviewed single “Danny.” Coming from a musical family—his maternal grandfather was a trumpet player and an uncle was a drummer—Purisima learned to play the guitar at 12 without any formal lessons. Over the years, he has learned to play the drum, percussion, piano, and ukulele. In Singapore, he performs regularly on weekends with six other Singapore bands: The Project, Bad Panda, Blues Express, Swiftbladez, Shixian and Frenz, and Alice and Groovyland. This year, Purisima will be collaborating again with Sheroy in an Indian fusion album, which brings together the latter’s Indian classical and folk music roots. Apart from a planned recording with a Jamaican producer, Purisima also intends to work on an album with two of his bands. - VVP, GMA News