Just a few years back, Dutch saxophonist Candy Dulfer rode an “It-Girl” comet tail, touring with Prince, Eurythmic Dave Stewart and others, and cutting her smooth-jazz teeth on a successful solo debut. On her latest release, For the Love of You (N2K Encoded Music; 50:48) Dulfer again proves her capable chops on the sax, but puzzlingly decides to become a Funky Diva, offering up a set of pop-funk trash built around her vocals (!). Now Dulfer is a decent singer with a strong delivery, but the inane lyrics populating “Saxy Mood” (side note: haven’t we seen every saxophone-themed double entendre by now?) and “Gititon” don’t give her much to work with. Worse yet, most tracks here are built on annoying hip-bop loops and samples meant to resemble the work of En Vogue-only without the melody, soul or sly lyrics. Dulfer can still wail on the sax, evidenced on the knuckling horn arrangement of Chaka Khan’s “Once You Get Started,” the album’s showcase piece, “Bird,” and the strutting, Prince-like “Give Me Some More,” but her primary instrument plays way too much of a secondary role here.
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