Candy Dulfer – Goin’ Dutch Has Never Felt So Right

Performing since age seven, becoming an international recording artist at age nineteen, and touring the world since age twenty, Dutch sax sensation Candy Dulfer has been grabbing and holding on to the bull’s horns for one long glorious ride into smooth jazz bliss.

Having recorded and/or performed with such artists as the inimitable and prolific Prince, the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, Van Morrison, Maceo Parker, Sheila E., Mavis Staples, Lionel Richie, Beyoncé, Pink Floyd (yes, Pink Floyd!), Chaka Khan, David Sanborn, Larry Graham, Marcus Miller, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Cliff, George Duke, Blondie, Jonathan Butler, and countless others, this sexy and energetic saxtress has compiled quite the impressive resume, to say the very least.
 
Her seduction of funk began in the smooth jazz world with “Lily was here,” her first collaboration with former Eurythmics Dave Stewart, in 1989. It was, besides being one of my (still-standing) all-time favs, a Number 1 hit all over Europe.  In 1999, the two worked together on the soundtrack of the Robert Altman motion picture Cookie’s Fortune, and in 2002 they toured Europe with a new project, Da Univerzal Playaz, featuring reggae legend Jimmy Cliff.
 
Dulfer’s 1990 solo debut album, Saxuality, which she recorded at the age of nineteen, sold over a million copies worldwide and was nominated for a Grammy Award.  Her fourth album, For the Love of You (1997) was a major hit in the US and remained in the Billboard charts for over forty weeks. Her sales for her solo albums are now well over two and a half million CDs worldwide. 
 
Her stint with Prince included an appearance in the "Partyman" video, being featured on the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack, and performing with the artist on a special anniversary edition of Saturday Night Live. In 1998 and 2002, she toured with him again and appeared on his 3-CD live box set, One Nite Alone...Live! as well as his internet-only released album, Xpectation.
 
In 2004, Dulfer joined Prince for the massive Musicology tour, playing over ninety shows to sold-out arenas across the US to over 1.5 million excited fans. Prior to the Musicology tour, she performed with Prince and Beyoncé at the prestigious Grammy Awards and also performed with Prince at Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. She also featured prominently - with sax and vocals - on Prince’s hit album, Musicology, including the smashing duet “Life ‘o’ the Party.”
 
Dulfer has been touring the world with her own band, Funky Stuff, since the early ‘90s. From the Roxy in L.A. and the illustrious Bottom Line in New York to the Blue Note clubs in Japan and the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, she has been packing that knock-out punch and claiming that take-no-prisoners mantra wherever she struts her brilliance and gritty funk.  

Quite the worldly one, she and her band have toured in Canada, USA, Asia, Scandinavia, and the Baltic States, as well as performing in San Remo and Perugia, Italy, the Gurten Festival in Bern, Switzerland, the Nice Jazz and Vienne Festival in France, Couleur Locale in Brussels and, of course, the famous North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague where they sold out their biggest venue for over thirteen years.
 
In 2003, Dulfer’s song “Finsbury Park, Café 67,” from her solo album, Right in my Soul, became a major hit at all the smooth jazz stations across the US, and, in October of that year, the song reached the Number 1 position on the R&R Smooth Jazz chart, making it the most played smooth jazz song in the country.
 
Her second live album Live at Montreux was released in 2005 on DVD and CD as part of the prestigious selection of releases by Eagle Vision from the archives of the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival.
 
In 2006, Dulfer performed as a special guest at the renowned Berks Jazz Fest in the US, followed by more shows in the States in July together with Jason Miles (of Miles Davis fame) with a band that included Candy’s fellow Prince band members Rhonda Smith and Chance Howard. By popular demand, she once again returned to the famous Blue Note clubs in Japan for an extensive tour in October.
 
In between two American tours and shows in Japan, the saxophonist wowed European festival crowds in 2007 with "Candy & Friends," spectacular concerts featuring her musical friends from around the world, including special guest star Rosie Gaines (of Prince fame). Earlier in 2007, Dulfer performed with Sheila E. for a European tour with her all-female band C.O.E.D.
 
2007 also saw another longtime dream come true for Dulfer, with the start of her own television show Candy Meets on Dutch primetime television - a series of six personal documentaries in which Candy visited some of her musical friends and heroes on location to discuss their careers and love for music. Guests included Dave Stewart, Maceo Parker, Mavis Staples, Sheila E. and her own father Hans Dulfer. The show concluded with a rare interview and impromptu performance with Van Morrison.
 
In 2008, she was awarded the Golden Harp for her outstanding contributions to music in the Netherlands. Due to popular demand she once again toured the US, Japan, and Europe.  She also visited South Africa for the first time for a show at the famous Cape Town Jazz Festival. In between tours, she is a regular co-host of the popular Dutch prime time television talk show "De Wereld Draait Door."
 
In September 2008, she joined superstar Lionel Richie on stage for four nights at the "Symphonica in Rosso" spectacle at the Gelredome Stadium in Arnhem, The Netherlands.

Another point of considerable note is Dulfer’s commitment to offering her own “Sax Education,” and she has a page devoted to just that on her website: http://www.candydulfer.nl/site/eng/.  Great for beginning or aspiring sax players.
 
Candy Dulfer’s new studio album, Funked Up & Chilled Out, on the Heads Up label, is a monstrous funkfest worthy of the Candy Dulfer signature and is still tearing through the US and the world.  This “candy” is not only sweet but quite intoxicating.  Showing no signs of letting up, we should all buckle up and settle back for the Candy Dulfer ride for some time to come. --  Ronald Jackson