I picked up Dutch sax player Candy Dulfer's first release, SAXuality years ago, after seeing her perform on - Arsenio Hall ? - Johnny Carson ? - anyway, it was a while ago. This CD of Candy's is just, oh so sweet (pun not intended, but noted *S*). "Lily Was Here" is the "hit" from it, but the other songs are strong too. Some are mellow, some straight ahead jazz, and some downright funky - like "Get The Funk," and on "Heavenly City," and "Saxuality," which includes her singing.

Her follow up, Sax-a-Go-Go, is also quite nice, but sad to say, hard to find locally, except maybe from a used CD store. It IS now available as an import, and at a reasonable price yet. The gem on it is "I Can't Make You Love Me." But you'll love her playing the rest of it as well... Three tunes from this, "Mister Marvin," "Jamming" and the AWB tune "Pick Up The Pieces" appear on her Best of. For "I Can't Make You Love Me" alone this is a must have (maybe it will someday appear on a Best of, volume 2 ?) I'm assuming these tracks appear on the import (track listing is not shown).

Her third one, For the love of you contains a generous helping of the funky stuff ("Gititon," "Once you get started," "Allright" and "Give me some more" - this last one sounds almost like Prince had a hand in it), "smooth jazz" (the title track, her cover of the old Isley Brothers tune "For the love of you," and "Girls should stick together" mmmm, another taste of R&B...) and a more traditional jazz feel ("Bird"). On the first couple of notes of "Smooth," I'm reminded of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing"... then I beging to expect the Chi-Lites to pipe in... there is plenty of originality, but some of the stylings bring back memories of some old tunes... as it should be.

Since I have the three above, I won't be needing Best Of Candy Dulfer - or will I ? As seems to be the practice lately in greatest hits packages, it has 2 new tunes ("ILU" and "2 Miles"), and a remix ( of "For The Love Of You"). The non-remixed version of that also, along with "Smooth" and "Bird" from her third CD are included. As mentioned above, it also contains three tracks from the now import only Sax-a-Go-Go. Only two tracks from SAXuality are included ("Lily Was Here" and "So What").

I'm a big booster of greatest hits packages for pop music, and country. For jazz.... I don't know. For Candy's music, I suggest starting at the start - SAXuality - and if it grabs you, proceeding on to Sax-a-Go-Go if you can find it, and then to For the love of you .... On the other hand, taking the approach I do with non-jazz - getting the Best of / Greatest Hits first puts them all in one place, and helps you decide whether to invest in the rest of the catalog of an artist new to you.

What Does It Take was released August 1999, and follows the pattern of a little funk, a great R&B cover, and great straight ahead jazz. "What Does It Take" - Candy's take on the Jr. Walker & The All Stars classic is a classic of sorts itself. (By the way, did you know it was Walker doing the sax solo on Foreigner's "Urgent" ?) I don't want to admit anyone could do that tune better than Walker... but Dulfer on sax with Jonathan Butler's vocals is so good you will enjoy it rather than compare it. There are two Sonny Rollins songs, "Island Lady" (featuring a trumpet solo by Arturo Sandoval) and "No Problem." "2025" is this CD's nod to Prince.

Candy Dulfer used to have her own Website, which provided interesting biographical material... keeping up a site is no easy task *S* From any of my CDnow links to her above, you can click again on "biography" on the left column and get a bio with some related links. Another site of interest: Candy Dulfer Multimedia Room

Music Home

The Penguin Guide to Jazz on Compact Discs

Amazon.com's Music Books Page

To search for anything visit
the search pages at michaelseclectic.com

Click below to leave my music pages and go to

Copyright © 2001 MJB - michael47m@yahoo.com

This page updated May 9, 2001

Web site design, maintenance and consulting