Candy Dulfer

Dutch saxophonist Candy Dulfer was born on September 19, 1969 in Amsterdam. The daughter of Dutch jazz saxophonist Hans Dulfer, she has become an enormously popular jazz and pop crossover artist, recording or touring with artists such as Prince, Van Morrison, Tower of Power, Pink Floyd, Dave Stewart, Maceo Parker, Angie Stone, and Alan Parsons. She is best known for her hit single “Lily Was Here” (1989) and her Grammy-nominated debut album Saxuality (1990). Candy Dulfer began playing drums at the age of five but switched to saxophone a year later. By the time she was 14, she formed a band called Funky Stuff. The band toured the Netherlands in 1987 and served as the opening act for two of Madonna’s live shows. In 1988, she performed an improvised solo for one of Prince’s European shows. She also performed in Prince’s “Partyman” video in 1989. David A. Stewart invited her to perform session work for his soundtrack to the motion picture Lily Was Here. The title track was released as a single, climbing to Number 1 in the Netherlands, Number 2 in Belgium, and the Top 10 in Switzerland and the UK. This led to Dulfer signing with Arista Records and releasing her 1990 debut album, Saxuality. The album reached Number 3 on the charts in the Netherlands and Number 22 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. In some regions, including America, “Lily Was Here” was added to the album’s track list. Candy Dulfer then appeared live with Pink Floyd at Knebworth. In 1993, she released her second solo album, Sax-A-Go-Go, which hit the Top 20 in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and in America on Billboards Jazz Albums chart. Dulfer was also featured on Van Morrison’s 1993 live album A Night In San Francisco. Candy Dulfer has continued to release albums on a variety of labels with almost every one of them landing in the Dutch Top 40. Her studio and live session work has included recordings with Herman Brood & His Wild Romance, The Time, Aretha Franklin, Blondie, Jools Holland, Maceo Parker, and, of course, Prince.

Please enable Javascript to view this page competely.