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.
Discography
• Saxuality (1990) • Sax-a-Go-Go (1993) • Big Girl (1995) • For the Love of You (1997) • The Best of Candy Dulfer (1998) • Girls Night Out (1999) • What Does It Take (album) (1999) • Dulfer Dulfer (2002) • Right in My Soul (2003) • Candy Store (2007) • Funked Up & Chilled Out (2009) • Crazy (2011)