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There aren’t many female guitarists in the world who can hold their own up against the top shredders but when I first saw the Michael Jackson video for ‘Dirty Diana’ I had to know who the quirky guitarist was with a shock of blonde hair that could beat Marge Simpson in a height battle. It wasn’t long before Jennifer Batten was appearing in all the guitar mags and I remember reading how she attended the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) which was the holy grail of music institutions for guitarists in the 80’s and is still going strong today as part of the L.A. Musicians Institute. After GIT Jennifer auditioned for Michael Jackson’s band sending a video which included a note for note rendition of Eddie Van Halen’s ‘Beat it’ solo, she was selected for the ‘Bad’ tour and played to over 4.5 million people over a period of 1.5 years. That in itself is a pretty amazing achievement but Jennifer then decided to record a solo album to really let people know what she was capable of, the album was called ‘Above, Below and Beyond’ and featured her incredible two handed tapping rendition of Rimsky Korsakov’s ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’, check the video out here. Shortly after Jennifer rejoined Michael Jackson for the ‘Dangerous’ tour and in ‘93 played in Superbowl XXVII’s half time show which aired to 1.5 billion people in 80 nations! She then released another solo album called ‘Jennifer Batten’s Tribal Rage ~ Momentum’ before joining Michael Jackson once again for the 2 year ‘History’ tour in 1997. After the ‘History’ tour Jennifer joined forces with Jeff Beck for 3 years releasing a couple of albums and touring the world.

That just about brings us to Jennifer’s new album ‘Whatever’, yes that is the title of her album I wasn’t dissing her in my post title! This album was mainly written while she was working with Jeff Beck and it really shows with his love of electronica. There is a very diverse collection of music on ‘Whatever’ from the laid back hip hop vibe of album opener ‘Ass Whoopin’ which features Jon Clark, the other guitarist on MJ’s ‘Bad’ tour, doing a spoken word comedic character. The melodies have a bit of Vai about them but Jennifer has a really unique rock/fusion style. Some of the tracks such as ‘Ricochet’ are a bit 80’s sounding and really don’t have enough guitar playing in them for my liking but these tracks are in the minority.

‘Fearless’ took me by surprise as it is an acoustic solo piece and I’ve never heard Jennifer playing acoustic guitar before, you could easily mistake her playing for Tommy Emmanuel to begin with and then she unleashes her Michael Hedges style, there’s even a bit of slide in there. This is one of the stand out tracks for just being so different to the rest of the album and showing that she also has the chops on an acoustic guitar.

The title track ‘Whatever’ and ‘Hooligan’s Holiday’ both have heavy Jeff Beck influence in them, the latter even more so utilising Jeff Beck’s whammy technique to create a slide sound in the main melody.

Another stand out track is ‘Run With It’ which show Jennifer’s world music influence as well as some interesting riffs and the odd flurry of notes that makes you want to quit playing!

I don’t really know what to say about the final track but I suppose it shows Jennifer’s sense of humour which is basically a bunch of musical farts and belches… very bizarre!

All in all it is an interesting album and showcases Jennifer’s exceptional guitar playing and the reason why she enjoyed so many years touring in one of the top jobs in the world with Michael Jackson’s band but due to her diverse musical interests it is a bit hard to pidgeon-hole. Maybe that is a good thing? Check out her website for some audio snippets to see what you think. Also watch out for her upcoming column in Guitar Player magazine!

Jennifer Batten’s Official Site