Saxuality

Candy Dulfer

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 28, 1991)
• Original Release Date: May 24, 1991
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Arista
• ASIN: B000002VHW
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #53,074 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "I know she looks good, but can she play?", June 30, 2000

By	hannibalsmith "hannibalsmith" (Van Nuys, CA United States) - See all my reviews

The words above are uttered at the beginning of the title track, to which we hear Candy reply "Think about it!" - the answer is an obvious an very emphatic yes.

I bought this album in 1991 after hearing my roomate's copy. I've never regretted this purchase and after countless listenings I still treasure it today. The style of the songs on this album is absolutely great and I've never really heard anything in the same vein except perhaps on some selected tracks on Candy's later albums.

The album starts off with Lily Was Here, a duet between Candy and Dave Stuart on Guitar - its very serene with a great peak on the sax. Even if you don't recognize this song by name, chances are you've probably heard it before and would recognize it instantly.

The remaining tracks I would catagorize into three groups - funky/modern (So What, Heavenly City, There Goes The Neighborhood), New Wave'ish (Pee Wee, Jazzid) and more traditional sax based jazz (Mr. Lee, Home Is Not a House).

Mr. Lee and Home is Not a House are both really well done, with the latter featuring an incredible bit of dueling alto and tenor sax between Candy on alto and her father Hans on tenor, and the former featuring grade "A" solo work against a traditional jazz background.

There Goes the Neighborhood is another great track - also a 'dueling instruments' type track, this time its Candy's alto sax vs. a very well played electric guitar that almost, but not quite, overshadows the sax.

One consistent knock I've heard against Candy is that she's all looks but not really that great of a player - and I'm sure the clever title of this album did little to reduce that impression. Well, she definetly does look good - but - while I'm no expert on rating sax players on their technical merits, to my ear she does an excellent job on this album and the songs are unique and really enjoyable.

The music, much more so than Ms. Dulfer's looks, truely exudes "Saxuality".

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some of the best jazz of the 90's., December 23, 1999

By	David Tepper (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

I was absolutely flabbergasted when I first heard "Lily Was Here". It's one of those songs that can soothe your soul and energize your body at the same time. I kept listening to that song over and over, each time finding a new level of sound I'd never noticed before.

So I bought this CD on the strength of that track alone, and I wasn't disappointed. Ms. Dulfer took me into a continuing adventure into what her saxophone could do. Hearing her layer that sax over the percussion-driven "Jazzid" always gives me a thrill, and she showed off her brass cojones by completely reworking Miles Davis's cool-jazz instrumental anthem "So What" into an ambitious piece of fusion revisionism. Gotta respect her for that little experiment, even though she doesn't really hope to approach Miles.

Her singing voice is not nearly as good as her instrumental skills. I still can't stand her shrieking on the title track and "Heavenly City", but I've learned to live with it and enjoy the music in spite of that. It's a small price to pay to listen to some of the neatest jazz of the 90's.

This CD was my very first introduction to jazz, and it got me suckered into buying up Miles, Bill Evans, Louis Armstrong... it's very accessible to music lovers who have little previous exposure to jazz. Although this is a highly uneven album, the high points are so high that I feel justified in giving this a five-star rating.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Sax, so-so vocals, December 19, 2006

By	HardyBoys.us (Long Island USA) - See all my reviews

Candy sure can play her butt off when she wants and she wanted to several times on this album. Those tunes are a joy to listen to and get 5 stars.
On the down side, there are the vocal songs which just didn't make it for me and forced me to detract a star from the rating.
Since I bought this used for a couple of bucks, I consider it money well spent but whether this CD will make it over to my "frequently played" stack is conjectural.