Legendary saxophonist Candy Dulfer joins Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley for a wide-ranging conversation covering her work with Prince, her unforgettable journey into his world, and her experiences on the iconic Musicology Tour.

Candy shares the incredible story of how she first connected with Prince — from a canceled opening slot to being called back for a last-minute performance that changed everything. She also reflects on recording sessions, touring with Prince and The New Power Generation, and contributing to projects like 3121.

The conversation also explores her acclaimed Live at Montreux release, her creative process, and collaborations with top-tier musicians including Chance Howard and John Blackwell.

🎷 A must-listen for fans of Prince, funk, jazz, and the Minneapolis sound.

You just listened to a great song, a live song from our upcoming artist. Right now we're going to speak with her. It's Dance Live from Montreux and it's out in Switzerland.

We've wanted to have her on the show for many, many years. Very talented saxophonist and we have her on today. Candy Dolpher, welcome to the upper room.

Thank you very much.

And great, great album. New album and DVD we should mention.

Yeah, right, yeah.

Tell us about selecting a live show from a prestigious festival. But you've done so many different concerts. How did you decide to release this one?

Well, actually, I had done a previous live recording a couple of years ago called Life in Amsterdam. So I wasn't really planning on doing a new one. But when you play the Montreal Dance Festival, they always record, thank God.

Right, and you can see them online too.

Yeah, yeah. And you can, if you want to, you can buy the tapes.

And we actually did that one year, but we played there three times and I didn't bother for the other two, which was stupid because eventually it turned out that we were going to make a Live in Montreal album and then you could mix it more easier because then we would get a 24 track. So the great thing about this album is that what you hear is just a two track from the mixing board.

And it's amazing that it sounds so good as it does because that's usually not the case. So we were very lucky with that.

And the idea to do these concerts and put them on DVD and CD was from my record company, Eagle Records, because they were recently starting to do a whole series of best concerts that had been held in Montreux. They just accumulated the rights and I just was a new addition to their label. So they said, did you ever play the Montreux? And I said, yes.

They said, should we release it? And I said, well, it's a while ago, I don't know if it's any good. And when I started listening to the tapes, I was pleasantly surprised.

It's kind of great. And you can. What, for me is very important that you can feel the atmosphere, you know, from the moment.

It should be, you know, it should be as much fun as that you were in the audience or nearly as much fun. And luckily the sound quality is that, you know, that good that you really get that vibe going and you hear the audience and everything.

So, yeah, now the best place for people, they can go to your website, candydolpher.com and how about. I mean, it's available Tower Records and all through Major distributors. How about your record company's website? Give a plug for them?

I don't know. I don't think they have a sale department on the website. So it's, you know, you can go there for information and stuff.

But I think, you know, all the big websites, you know, Amazon and stuff, you can. You can buy it there.

Right.

And it's supposed to be in store, so.

Yeah, pick up the DVD as well.

Yeah.

Candy Dolpher, international star music, jazz, funk, soul. She sings and has got a great band as well. Tell us, I know you did some tours.

Our buddies Chance Howard and John Blackwell did a couple short tours with you. But who's the core of your band that you've been working with?

Well, yeah, of course, that was amazing to have both of them, John Blackwell and Chance Howard on the tour. But that's in. It's recently that we sort of asked them to come with us because I met them, you know, during the print store.

But the core band has always been Ilko Bett, who's a guitar player and my best friend, and Thomas bank, who's the keyboardist and my. No, not my husband. But we've been together for 11 years and that sort of always will be the core.

And, you know, whoever talented, wonderful musicians we can get, we just add on. But it's really important for me to work with those two people always because they really.

Yeah, they just, you know, they understand exactly what I want.

We have the same taste in music, the same thoughts about, you know, recording and also about performing, you know, the same kind of input and it's lovely. I don't have to make all the decisions on my own. Ultimately, I'm sort of the boss.

But it's wonderful to have somebody that, you know, can back you up. And in my case, I have two somebodies and they're just the best of friends also, so that's. It's a wonderful thing to have that.

But we've just started writing with the three of us and then added Chance Howard on, who was so nice to come and visit us in Holland. And that was a great combination too, and we made some really, really nice songs.

So is he playing bass or keys? Everything's singing too.

Yeah, Chance plays everything ukulele and he'll make something out of. But he is. He amazed me with his bass playing because I sort of knew that he was a bass player.

And we jammed with Prince a couple of times when he, you know, would take the bass from somebody else who would then start crying, but, you know, not Ron. Because she holds her own. She's the best that I know. But, you know, and. But we never really. You know, I never heard him play for a long time.

So he came into our studio and just picked up the instrument, and we just wrote a couple of songs just off his bass line. So, yeah, he's very, very good at that, too. But I think anything he picks up, he does well.

Every time I see Chance, I say, chance, when is your solo record coming out? And he always tells me, yeah, it's just around the corner. And, you know.

Well, you know what? I've listened. I know he has a whole album in his pocket right now. He has beautiful songs, and it's very. I think it can do really, really well.

So I think we should just do a petition and get people in the streets to march up to him and make him, you know, release it. I think he's just like all of us. He's. He might be just a little bit too much of a perfectionist.

You know, he keeps working on his songs, but they're brilliant. Beautiful lyrics, lovely songs, and very. For me, in my ears, it sounds really commercial as well.

So, yeah, I think it's just a matter of time, and then everybody should learn about chance.

So Candy Dolpher is our special guest right now. Pleasure to have her here on WBOF in the upper room with Joe Kelly. Go to your newsstands.

Candy Dolpher's on the COVID of the latest issue of Abyss Jazz magazine. I believe it's the March edition, right?

Yeah, I think.

Nice story and great picture of you. So pick that up and we're gonna get into some more music. Live from Montreux out in Switzerland. And this is Candy Dolphin, her band. And let's.

I think we're gonna go with Longin for the Funk because we play a lot of funk on our show. So tell us about working this with your band on stage.

Yeah. Longin for the Funk is just. Is actually a song that we never really released unless, you know, except on this album.

And it was always a fun song because I'm always trying to find the ultimate instrumental song, but it still should have a little bit of vocals on it, you know, because that's. For me, that's the ultimate marriage between vocal music and instrumental music. And this one is a real good one.

But we still have to record it, you know, for the studio. I think we will do that, but we had so much more ideas that we didn't, you know, really get to it. But this is a nice live version of it.

All right, let's go give it a listen to it right now. CandyDolfer.com, candy will be back with us in just a few moments. This is called Longin.

And definitely pick up the DVD as well at your independent record outlet or your chain store. It's widely available, Widely distributed. Candy's with us right now. And you're originally from Holland? Amsterdam, right?

Yeah, I still live there.

Yeah. Tell us about the city. Because when people.

I've never been there, but when people, our friends go there to tour or visit, they just rave about going there. It's such a great place, right?

Yeah. Amsterdam is nice because it's on one side it's a really worldly town. You know, it's the capital of Holland. But on the other side, it's just like.

Just as small as a village. So the feeling you get there is very, you know, everybody knows each other, you can walk the streets pretty safe. It's a good environment.

And I mean, although it's changed a little bit over the years, it's still kind of a free thinking, you know, fun, you know, kind of place where a lot of cultures mix. And that's how I like it. I love it when, you know, you have so many cultures running around through each other.

And that's still the case in Amsterdam and the jazz scene, I mean, it's all very small, you know, because our population in Holland is only 50 million people. So, you know, it's not a big, jazzy, not a big music scene, but there's always something interesting going on.

And there's a lot of live jam sessions always going on. So, yeah, it's nice. It's not New York.

From your experience of traveling in Canada and the U.S. what would be the city? I mean, you mentioned New York. Would that be a city comparable to the multicultural experience?

Yeah, I think it is. It's just not as tough as New York.

You know, it's a little bit more friendly, maybe, but the whole idea of just, you know, existing next to each other sometimes, you know, working together, that's sort of the same thing in Amsterdam. But I must say that the feeling of Amsterdam, I found more in Chicago for one strange reason, which is my favorite city.

And, yeah, the way people react there, you know, and talk to you is sort of a little bit more like Amsterdam or vice versa.

Well, I Know, family is a big part of. Part of your life. And your dad, accomplished musician in his own right, Hans. And your mom, I believe, your mom.

We were standing, she was dancing next to us when we saw the Musicology tour in New Jersey. She was there, right?

Yes, yes.

She's always there with Maceo's tour manager. They were.

Yeah, yeah. They're best of friends. We've got a sort of a club going on.

Right.

Together and. But it's nice. And Inge is my manager, and so she's always with me. She's also the tour manager when we tour with the band.

Okay.

So, yeah, we always travel together and it's fun and we're really good friends aside from being mom and daughter. And although I wouldn't recommend it to everybody, you know, to take your mom and ask them to be your manager with us, it works fantastically.

And I'm so happy she does it. I wouldn't even, you know, want to begin thinking about having somebody else unless she says, I want to quit.

Right. Right. So you know Candy Dolpher right now. She's presently doing some dates in Reading, Pennsylvania, the Burks Jazz Fest. What kind of festival?

I know you did one date this weekend. What happened this weekend? What's coming up this weekend?

Well, it was a really fun thing. I was asked by Jason Miles, who is a producer and a keyboard player, but if you read the list of people he's worked with, you just faint.

It's from Miles Davis to David Sandron. Actually, he played with and worked with all my heroes and worked on my favorite albums. So it was a big, big honor to be asked by him.

And the great thing was we started out with a tribute to Marvin Gaye and Motown. And there were all these wonderful people, Jay Bekenstein, Bobby Caldwell, so many people that we were playing together with.

And then next Saturday, or coming Saturday, it's going to be a tribute to Ivan Lintz. And Ivan Lindtz is going to be there. Jane Moenheim, Brendan Russell, Elian Elias, Leonardo Amwaydo. We would.

Fantastic Brazilian guitar player who's lived in Holland, actually said it will be a nice reunion. And my favorite bass player of all times, Will Lee is going to be there.

Oh, yeah. From Paul Schaefer's band, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Will Lee also plays on every, you know, all the records that. That I like. He plays on it.

Yeah. For. For an all star session, you know, live concert like that. How much rehearsal time do you get?

We didn't rehearse so much.

We did like, we went over songs once and actually I like that because Jason Miles, he told me like, I like to keep it spontaneous and that's exactly what I like.

You know, of course it's a bit scary if you play with all people that you've never been with before and it's, you know, and songs you haven't done before. But I must say it's so much nicer to just improvise. I mean, that's a big part of the attraction of music.

I think that you can just, you know, go with the flow and see what happens. And he had such good musicians that it was, you know, piece of cake to do that.

And all the information. You can go to candydulfer.com for all the upcoming shows and the news on the upcoming record.

And you stay involved with your website with comments and great pictures up there. We're airing this interview in the MPG Music Club chat room as well as WBOF and the upper room 24 hour website.

You know, a lot of people also know you for touring with Prince and different bands and recently musicology. Tell us about your first experience with Prince. I know it got off to a little rough start.

Yeah, a pretty rough start.

Yeah.

It's actually, it's a wonderful story to think back to, but I was, I was 18 years old and Prince came to Holland to do shows and I was a fan anyway, I would have gone to the concert, you know, if I hadn't been asked to play there. But the Dutch promoter asked.

He needed a support act to sort of fill up the gap for the audience, you know, to come in and wait for the main show to start. So they asked me. So it was not by press Prince, but, you know, just the Dutch promoter.

And up until then I hadn't made any records or something, so I had a live reputation and I played in small clubs and stuff like that.

So yeah, when they asked me, although I never wanted to do sport decks because it's always such a, you know, bad place to be in because they never treat you right and everything I said, well, this is Prince, you know, you can't get any bigger than this, so yay. Okay. So we went there, we sound checked, we were of course totally nervous and excited and off to the moon.

And then one hour before our show, somebody promoter came up to me and said, yeah, Kenny, I'm really sorry, but it's not going to happen. So I said, what? But I'm a very proud person.

And up until that week before the gig, so many journalists had Called and newspapers like, R. Kennedy's gonna do princess support act. And, you know, I talked so much that I felt so embarrassed that this was not gonna happen that I was really angry.

So now I wouldn't have the guts to do that. But back then I probably had. And I just went up to. First I went to Mr. Forgnoli, Prince's then manager, who died.

And he was the typical manager with his big cigar in his mouth and stuff. So I went up to him and I said, hey, listen, you gotta let me play. Because Prince doesn't know what he's missing. And I'm really angry.

And you shouldn't treat people like that. He was laughing. And then I had the nerve to go up to Sheila', I, who I'd never met and was my idol. And I. I blabbermounted to her as well.

But they were all really nice to me. And, you know, they said. They said, okay, well, we'll say to Prince like, you know, never.

And then I wrote a little note and said, dear Prince, why don't you let us play? You missed a chance to hear a girl blow her ass off on a saxophone. Sorry about the word no.

That's okay.

Okay. That's how I wrote it. And I went up to the manager and I gave it to him, and I said, you just give this to Prince.

And so then I went home, and the manager just smiled. He thought, you know, I was a lunatic. And I went home. But Prince was there to perform for three days.

And one way or another, probably faith, my friends almost forced me to come with them to go to the show just as an audience. And I said, I don't want to go. Everybody knows he canceled me. And, you know, so they said, no, you're his biggest fan.

You got to go put on some dark glasses and get in the car and go. So I went. And then we were a bit early because we wanted to get good seats. And they suddenly somebody said from the loudspeakers can backstage.

So I thought my parents were in an accident or something. And I ran backstage. And then they said, yeah, Prince wants to make it up to you. Can you play?

I said, well, yeah, sure, but I didn't bring my saxophone.

So in an hour's time, my parents came from a different city, had police escort, blah, blah, blah, and I got my saxophone, really, three seconds before I had to jump on and do my solo. And then there is this history because he apparently liked it and started calling me after that and inviting me to do more stuff.

But it's A wonderful thing.

Yeah, it started. Yeah.

And it shows his sense of humor because in the end it turned out that it was totally not his fault that we couldn't do the sport act and he didn't even know about it. It's so different. And he still laughs about it sometimes, you know, he pretends he's me and, you know.

Yeah, yeah, we did some actually.

I don't know which songs are going to be on it because we did, I think, three or four tracks while we were there again with Maceo and Greg Boyer and Ray and. And I actually don't know, you know, what ended up where. So I'm really anxious to get the record.

Yeah, we got the record. We're hearing horns on it, so. Oh, good, he's got you represented on there.

Yeah, great.

That's great. Now, now, your own projects. I'm looking at some of the dates coming up. You've got a great mix of your.

Your own music and a hip hop artist out your way. Extensions, his name.

Yeah, yeah, That's a very nice product. It's a Dutch rapper who raps in Dutch. You can also, you know, rap in English, but that's his thing.

And we're going to do some songs together where, you know, big hits and then we're going to translate them into Dutch and play on it. It's a special thing in Holland where they do that more often. And it's a sponsored thing, but it's going to be fun.

And I love hip hop, so anytime I can sort of, you know, collaborate with people like that, I always do it because, yeah, for me it's just an extension of funk and jazz. And I love to be, you know, around people who are creative with words as well as people who are creative with music.

And you'll also be having a show with your dad coming up later this spring, right?

Yeah, we're doing many shows because. So I didn't want to go and tour before we had a new album out. So we took a lot of, you know, freestanding gigs and with my dad, it's so much fun.

He has a fantastic band with a dj, a double bass player, a rapper and him. And then I then play with him and it's a great combination of everything.

It's improvised, but it's very hardcore funk and house music and it Attracts young people, you know, like really 20 or 15 to 25 years old. And I think that's great because my father always does that really well.

He knows that if he just keeps his regular old or, how to say, his regular audience, they will grow old with him. And at one point, there won't be any audience anymore. So you have to make sure, you know, you always get new and young people. And.

And I think for my dad and also for me, that's our main goal in music, to make sure that through our stuff, that people get a little bit of the future, but also a little bit of the past. You know, and it doesn't have to be so scholarly. It's really about, you know, just playing for them and hoping they'll catch on.

A little bit of Charlie Parker or James Brown or Macy or whatever. And hopefully through our music, that will happen.

Well, medley music that was on the Musicology Tour, which we featured, you know, since it came out. Is Candy Dolpher featured prominently on vocals and playing saxophone on the Question of youf Fallen Prince. And the one as well. Tell.

Tell us about, you know, how that medley and working together. I mean, it's amazing just watching that in concert. How did you work that with Prince and Prince asking you to do this?

Yeah, he did. And I would never volunteer myself. Hey, Prince, I know how to sing. Can you just give me a. So that's not how it goes.

And I was almost dying because he sort of knows that I sing and I do sing, but for me, it's really, you know, the saxophone is the most important thing. I don't have a very good voice. I just do it because I love doing it.

I beg to differ, but you go ahead.

And so slowly it started evolving and doing a little bit of background for him. And then it went into, can you do the vocals on Purple Rain? And I said, no, no, no, no, no. Just the background vocals, mind you.

But that's such an icon song that I wanted. You know, I thought I couldn't do that, but he just listened to it and says, perfect, thank you. And then, okay, so you're a vocalist now also.

And then it started getting into, you know, you sing this and you sing that. I just didn't want to refuse, but it was really scary.

I mean, to sing together with, you know, I know it's just a little thing, but sing together with the greatest vocalist in the world is a bit, you know, scary.

Well, hopefully Prince will make that call again and do another tour in the future.

Yeah, I love working with Him.

Yeah.

And it's such a, you know, it's such a thrill. And it's. I mean, first of all, him, but it's not just him. He also always has amazing people around him.

Always new talent and, you know, it's always so exciting to be there. And then on top of all of that, I'm in the horn section with my, you know, best friend, my idol, my mentor, Maceo Parker.

Right, right.

It can't get any better than that.

And Greg Boyer, of course.

Yes, same thing.

There wasn't a trumpet player on the Musicology tour.

But no, we had the strangest horn section in the world, two altos and trombone players.

Whose idea was that?

Prince.

Right. Yeah.

And for some reason it worked. Well, probably he's always right. So it works and it was great, but it's not something.

When you see it on paper, you would think that'd be a good idea.

But yeah, definitely works. And, you know, if you're going to go out and see Candy Dolpher this weekend, the exact date at ready, Pennsylvania, Burke's Jazz Fest is the 25th.

Yes. 25th of March, 7pm the world premiere concert.

Okay. So it's going to be great renting Pennsylvania. And look out for that upcoming studio album. Your own band, working hard.

You're recording primarily in Amsterdam.

Well, actually, I live outside Amsterdam now and we've got this great little mini farm with a great studio. So up until now we been recording, you know, between the cows and the sheep.

Right?

Yeah.

Nice atmosphere.

Yeah, yeah, it's nice. And it still sounds funky, so that's good.

Oh, go ahead.

Yeah. And we think we're gonna sort of pretty much finish it there, maybe just mixing in a real studio. But it sounds great.

And we're gonna go out and first, thank you for, you know, wanted to have you on for so many years. I mean, you're still young, but you've accomplished so much since the first. First big hits back in the late 80s. We've got.

I think we're gonna go out with. We spoke on the Musicology medley you did. And also seg into one of your biggest songs. Lily was here.

And then we'll get into more music from Live from Montreux. So thanks, Candy.

Cool. Thank you so much for having me and say hi to all the listeners out there.

All right.

That's love.

All right. Thanks, Candy.

That's.