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Candy Dulfer and smooth jazz in general...

1858 Views 14 Replies 13 Participants Last post by  saxmanglen
You know, I absolutely hated Candy's smooth jazz titles "Lily Was Here" and "Living For The Love Of You" and thought it was subpar playing at best, and carried this opinion of her for a long, long, time.

These youtube videos have changed my opinion of her.. I think she sounds good here.



After watching this, I realize that her albums are probably not doing her much justice.

I like *some* smooth jazz... but I gotta say that it irks the hell out of me that they end up dumbing down so much of it to the point where sometimes you can't separate the good musicians from the bad.
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I listened to both clips and for the most part liked them (and by the way, what I play is mostly improvised music / avantgade / free jazz)!

Now for the criticism - Both clips were a bit too repeatitive, especailly because of the arrangment which could be much more intresting. More varied sound textures and lines. The first clip is a cover (I think) and has nothing better than the original. Her solos sound very professional and although it fits the context it not interesting to listen to because every part of it sounds too many other things. The part where they stop and enter one by one and she explains to the audience like they are stupid is especially silly.

But, these are all very minor problems considering the main point of the music. It is very obvious the music is dance music and a social purpose more than anything. Their clothes show it is like a party. When I listened I almost got up and danced in my room, and I'm not kidding! If I went to a party and this was the music it would be great! Basically it does what it is supposed to do very good, and it is important to have a lot of varied and good music for dancing.

When listening to this on CD some will like it a lot and some won't. I think the reason is because you are trying to listen to music that has a social or other purpose (dancing) like critical music. Those who like it it is probably because it reminds them of the other associations of the music. Nothing wrong with either case.
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Candy is a very good and energetic funky alto player , she obviously chose the more popular forms of music and her music is obviously as much show as it is a very good example of a professional saxophonist playing.....lots of energy there!

Whether you like it or not....... her music is not my cup of tea but she definetly took a lot of the energy from her great father Hans Dulfer one of the most important Dutch Horn Players. Again his music is filled with lots of funk and all sorts of influences , he likes keeping up with the times, you see..... .
A very interesting Character, he is not very well lately and all the people involved in music in Holland whish him well.

Take it away Hans!
http://www.hansdulfer.nl/
I don't know anything about her music, but I'll admit she's got it going on in the looks department.

I never saw girls in band that look like this when I was coming up.
I've seen her ..."dressed to the nines" a few times when she was not performing so for me I'm just not critical either way about her horn playing!
I love funk and this stuff was sort of fun for a while, but she really didn't go anywhere with it and it got a little tedious after a while.

And why do guys always have to comment on the looks of any woman who happens to be a musician. Maybe it's just me, but that always strikes me as juvenile.
cleger said:
..why do guys always have to comment on the looks of any woman who happens to be a musician. Maybe it's just me, but that always strikes me as juvenile.
Agree totally - How many of us guys would like to be appraised for our looks as opposed to our playing? - It just ain't right to do the double standard thing. A player's a player.
knighttrain said:
A player's a player.
And you don't need a sax for being (called) one....:)
knighttrain said:
Agree totally - How many of us guys would like to be appraised for our looks as opposed to our playing? - It just ain't right to do the double standard thing. A player's a player.
She is a real good player Listen to her solos on Van Morrison's live in San Francisco Album.

But she definitely doesn't hide that she is a beautiful woman just look at some of her album jackets. I am sure that her looks help her album sales. Its just the way it is and she cant be faulted for this. Also if you look at some of the guys that make Smooth Jazz albums many look like they just fell off the cover of GQ
Again I happen to like her playing.
I quite liked her "For the love of you"

But then I've always liked the Isleys, so maybe that's why.
cleger said:
I love funk and this stuff was sort of fun for a while, but she really didn't go anywhere with it and it got a little tedious after a while.

And why do guys always have to comment on the looks of any woman who happens to be a musician. Maybe it's just me, but that always strikes me as juvenile.
Hey man it's not like she's wearing a burka. She's selling it with those outfits.

I mean if I came out on stage playing sax with my shirt off covered in baby oil do you think it would be alright for some of the ladies to comment on something other than my sax chops?

The fact is most hardcore jazz men tend to be plain looking or just butt ugly....that's why they play the best jazz.
heath said:
The fact is most hardcore jazz men tend to be plain looking or just butt ugly.
Thank upper management I'm not hardcore!:D
clarnibass said:
... The part where they stop and enter one by one and she explains to the audience like they are stupid is especially silly.
...
This is the 'audience involvement' section and many performers do this. Singers get the audience singing, etc. Nothing at all wrong with that. This was a pop/jazz concert not a black tie event at the Kennedy Center.
UncleClark said:
This is the 'audience involvement' section and many performers do this. Singers get the audience singing, etc. Nothing at all wrong with that. This was a pop/jazz concert not a black tie event at the Kennedy Center.
I agree with you. I also think there is nothing wrong with it. My comment was only referring to the way it was done specifically in that clip.
For those like Candy or Dave Koz it's "entertaining" that they excel at. They are accomplished horn players but they have the knack for interacting with the crowd and put on a good show.

I've seen Dave Koz and his traveling show a couple of times in my area and it's always fresh. He gets into what he does and the crowd loves it. On another note, a couple of years ago David Sanborn came to the same venue and his performance was less than exciting. Even a bit boring for those that aren't necessarily musically inclined.

I'd much rather listen to Sanborn's studio stuff and take the wife to a Koz show any day! YMMV
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