Candy Dulfer

Candy Dulfer
Candy Dulfer in 2009
Background information
Born	(1969-09-19) 19 September 1969 (age 47) Amsterdam, Netherlands
Genres	Smooth jazz, funk, nu jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Saxophone
Years active	1981–present
Labels	BMG, N-Coded, Eagle, Heads Up
Associated acts	Van Morrison, Prince, Dave Stewart, Pink Floyd
Website	www.candydulfer.nl

Candy Dulfer (born 19 September 1969) is a Dutch smooth jazz, funk alto saxophonist and occasional singer who began playing at the age of six. She founded her band, Funky Stuff, when she was fourteen years old. Her debut album Saxuality (1990) received a Grammy Award nomination. Dulfer has released nine studio albums, two live albums, and one compilation album. She has performed and recorded songs with musicians including her father Hans Dulfer, Prince, Dave Stewart, Van Morrison, and Maceo Parker, and has performed live with Alan Parsons (1995), Pink Floyd (1990), and Tower of Power (2014). She hosted the Dutch television series Candy meets... (2007), in which she interviews fellow musicians. In 2013 she became a judge in the fifth season of the Dutch version of The X Factor.

Candy Dulfer was born on 19 September 1969 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, as the daughter of saxophonist Hans Dulfer. She began playing the drums at the age of five. As a six-year-old she started to play the soprano saxophone. At the age of seven she switched to alto saxophone and later began playing in a local concert band Jeugd Doet Leven (English translation: "Youth Brings Life") in Zuiderwoude.

Dulfer played her first solo on stage with her father's band De Perikels ("The Perils"). At the age of eleven, she made her first recordings for the album I Didn't Ask (1981) of De Perikels. In 1982, when she was twelve years old, she played as a member of Rosa King's Ladies Horn section at the North Sea Jazz Festival. According to Dulfer, King encouraged her to become a band leader herself. In 1984, at the age of fourteen, Dulfer started her own band Funky Stuff.