Dulfer was born on September 19, 1969 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She began playing the drums at the age of five. As a six-year-old, she started to play the soprano saxophone. At age seven, she switched to alto saxophone and later began playing in a local concert band Jeugd Doet Leven in Zuiderwoude. Dulfer played her first solo on stage with her father's band De Perikels. At age eleven, she made her first recordings for the albumI Didn't Ask 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. In 1984, at age fourteen, she started the band Funky Stuff.
Career
Dulfer's band performed throughout the Netherlands and in 1987 was the opening act for two of Madonna's European concerts. In 1988, Prince invited Dulfer on stage to play an improvised solo during one of his European shows. In 1989 Dulfer appeared in Prince's "Partyman" video. Dulfer performed session work with Eurythmics guitarist and producer Dave Stewart and was a guest musician for Pink Floyd during the band's performance at Knebworth in 1990, from which several tracks were released on a multi-artist live album and video, Live at Knebworth '90. The Knebworth show has since been released as part of the Pink Floyd box setThe Later Years 1987–2019 on CD, DVD, and BD. Dulfer was also the featured saxophonist on Van Morrison's A Night in San Francisco, an album in 1993, and performed with Alan Parsons and his band at the World Liberty Concert in 1995. Dulfer collaborated with her father Hans Dulfer on the duet album Dulfer Dulfer in 2001. She joined Prince's band in 2004 for his Musicology Live 2004ever tour. In 2007, she released her ninth studio albumCandy Store. The album reached a No. 2 position in Billboard'sTop Contemporary Jazz charts. Her songs "Candy Store" and "L.A. Citylights" reached the No. 1 position in Smooth Jazz National Airplay charts in the United States. Dulfer is mostly a self-taught musician except for some training in a concert band and a few months of music lessons. Until 2010 Dulfer played a Selmer Mk VI alto - which is visible in the majority of early photographs. In 2010 she became an endorsee of the Dutch Free Wind saxophone, created by Friso Heidinga, who started building saxophones in Amsterdam in 2009. In 2007, Dulfer was the presenter and interviewer in Candy Meets..., her television program for public broadcaster NPS. In the series, she met with Sheila E., Maceo Parker, Hans Dulfer, Van Morrison, Dave Stewart, and Mavis Staples.
