Candy Dulfer | Funked Up!

Nearly two decades after her GRAMMY®-nominated recording debut in 1990,
saxophonist Candy Dulfer has earned a reputation as a high-energy
performer with charisma and sex appeal to burn.

Dulfer bares it all – the brassy and edgy, along with a few mellow touches – with the May 12, 2009, worldwide release of Funked Up! on Heads Up International, a division of Concord Music
Group. The 12-track set features the revved-up funk and R&B typical
of her legendary live shows, laced with a few cooler, quieter grooves
to keep things interesting.

The more lively tracks on Funked Up! started coming together not long after the 2007 release of Dulfer’s previous Heads Up recording, Candy Store. In the meantime, she and her band had been asked by Dutch filmmaker Fred van Dijk to record the soundtrack for Kissed by the Grape,
a documentary exploring the world of organic winemaking. The film
project steered them into a more ambient groove – the ideal complement
to the rhythmically intense material that they’d already recorded.

“It came together over the course of a year and a half,” says Dulfer.
“First, we had the beginnings of the album. Then we made the soundtrack
to the movie. After that, we even wrote a couple more songs. It’s
almost like a best-of album representing my funky and softer sides.
It’s great when you have so many good songs, and you get to choose the
ones you like best.”

With so much to choose from, the result is something for everyone. Funked Up!
kicks off with the high-powered and percussive “First in Line,” a track
built atop the rock-solid rhythm section of bassist Chance Howard and
drummer Kirk Johnson, and augmented by the backing vocals of Dulfer and
Monique Bakker (a recurring vocalist on Dulfer’s recordings). Assisting
Dulfer with the brass is a three-piece horn section that includes
trumpeter Jan van Duikeren, tenor saxophonist Guido Nijs and trombonist
Louk Boudesteijn.



Heads Up International