For the Love of You

Album Review

Dressed in a white jumpsuit, legs crossed, sandy blond hair perfectly coiffed, and sitting in a comfy tan chair with her trusty alto sax, Candy Dulfer looks perfectly angelic on the cover of her third album, For the Love of You. Some of the goofy shots on the inside sleeve cast her in the more mischievous light of her almost lookalike Jenny McCarthy, but the overall packaging — and that dazzling smile — caresses the eyes with femininity. But her deeper musical dimensions are decidedly masculine. Once she starts to blow, Dulfer is as aggressive, gritty, and boisterous as her primary alto inspirations, David Sanborn and Maceo Parker. She also invokes the groove intensive rock-soul flavors of Prince, who enlisted Dulfer to play on numerous projects in the early '90s (when he was still Prince) after she played on the road with Pink Floyd — hardly a pastel-and-angora kind of pedigree. Anyone who dug Saxuality and its buoyant 1993 follow-up, Sax-A-Go-Go, knows Dulfer enters the party ready to cut loose, and won't be disappointed by the buoyant goings-on here. From the frisky jam "Saxy Mood" (on which Dulfer treats her horn as a percussive instrument) to the hypnotic, heavily looped invitation to "Gititon," For the Love of You is a big-hearted, festive affair, complete with vocal effects that simulate background conversations. "Sunday Cool" is especially rambunctious, forsaking its title notion for a 100-mph drive through a maze of Booker T.-like Hammond B-3 effects and tape loops.