Candy Dulfer

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. 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."

Front to back, Funked Up! is a snapshot of all the benchmarks that make up Candy Dulfer's live performances – lots of high-energy, in-your-face grooves, punctuated by intriguing moments of subtlety and nuance. "I love an album that has the same flow as, say, a movie or a book," she says. "It starts slowly, then builds tension, and then you take it down a bit in certain places. That's the kind of concert I play when I'm touring, and that's what I wanted to capture on this recording."

There's something sweet and sexy happening here. Get some Candy and get Funked Up!