Rising from the guitar underground in the late 1980's Jennifer Batten is arguably the most visible female guitarist on the scene today. Setting her apart from her peers at the beginning of her career was her absolute mastery of the two handed tapping style made popular by Eddie Van Halen. The guitar press began championing her from the start and she ended up writing an ongoing instructional column for Guitar Player magazine and appearing on Guitar For The Practicing Musician's first compilation CD. In 1987 she received her biggest break. Hand picked out of a pool of over 100 guitarists, Jennifer was tapped to be the featured guitarist in Michael Jackson's touring band. Jennifer toured the world several times over with Mr. Jackson playing to over 4.5 million people. She appeared with Jackson on the halftime show of Super Bowl 27 which was viewed by 1.5 billion people, the largest television audience in history. Respect from her peers continued to grow. In 1998 Jennifer was asked by none other than Jeff Beck to join her touring band. She appeared on Mr. Beck's latest release "Who Else," contributing song ideas, guitar and guitar synthesizer. As part of Jeff Beck's band she recently toured Europe, Japan, South America and twice in the United States. Jennifer says "I joined Washburn in '96. There seemed to be a buzz about the instruments being made and a feeling of innovation and openess to new ideas. When I received the Mavericks I was nervous about moving to a non-strat type guitar but it fit like a glove right away." Jennifer currently is playing her signature model JB100 Midi .
