The buzz on Jennifer Batten rose from the guitar underground, and the guitar magazines promptly began chronicling her savvy musicianship and highly original approach to the electric guitar.
A major turning point came when she was selected from over one hundred guitarists to play in Michael Jackson’s highly skilled band which toured the world over a ten year period supporting his multi million record setting CD’s; Bad, Dangerous, and HIStory. She also appeared with Jackson in the Superbowl XXVI half time show airing to 80 nations (1.5 billion people). This was the largest TV viewing audience in history.
During the off time between Jackson’s tours Jennifer released two solo CD’s “Above, Below, and Beyond” and “Momentum”, both of which caught the ear of British guitar icon Jeff Beck who asked her to join his band shortly after the HIStory tour wrapped up in the spring of 1998. They joined forces for 3 years on the CD’s “Who Else”, and “You Had It Coming” which were both supported by world tours. A DVD is available of this collaboration entitled “Jeff Beck Live in Tokyo 1999”.
Jennifer has authored two music books, three instructional DVD’s, and has now released three solo CD’s venturing from world beat and rock n roll, to electronica. Her newest release is a collaboration with vocalist Marc Scherer for 2017’s “Scherer Batten – Battlezone”
She’s toured the globe with various formats, including performing a solo multimedia show in synch with films she’s made. She did a guitar residency for the Cirque Du Soleil show “Zumanity” in Las Vegas, and has also done thousands of music workshops.
In Jan 2016 she received the She Rocks “Icon” award and recently also was inducted into Guitar Player Magazine’s “Gallery of the Greats”. Her latest project in part as an effort to retire from constant international touring is Portland’s “Jennifer Batten & Full Steam band featuring some of Portland’s finest talent. This is a band offering a variety of genres of dance music from Michael Jackson, to Prince, Hall and Oats, Huey Lewis, Toto, and Van Halen.
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