Jennifer Batten was the lead guitarist in Michael Jackson's band from 1987 to 1997. In 1998, she began a three-year stint as the second guitarist in Jeff Beck's band, in which she simultaneously triggered and played all the keyboard parts with her guitar synthesizer.

Batten credits Jackson with expanding her sensibility of pop music as a multimedia spectacle. Beck helped her to appreciate techno and other electronic music styles.

Jackson and Beck both avoid the spotlight off stage. Apart from that, the two share little in common.

“With Michael, there were 100 people on tour; with Jeff, there were 12,” Batten said. “Michael wanted the songs to sound the same every night. Jeff wanted the exact opposite.

“With Jeff, it was more like a family and he'd hang out with us. With Michael, because of security, he'd be gone before we even finished the last song.”
Being a one-woman band is nothing new for this San Diego-bred guitar star. For nearly 20 years, she's regularly performed solo guitar clinics in Europe, South America, Australia and, more recently, China, using backing tapes to accompany her live guitar work.

But “Inner Journey,” the final selection on Batten's new album, contains a credit that may be a first on any release: “Arm fart and belching technology.”

How did this award-winning instrumentalist come to combine her stellar guitar work with the sounds of such decidedly earthy bodily functions?

Batten is quick to credit English guitar legend Jeff Beck, in whose band she played from 1998 to 2001.

“We started doing arm-fart contests after shows,” she explained. “We'd get stopwatches and time each other to see who could do the longest one without laughing. At first, it was 5 seconds or so. A few months later, I was the winner at 45 seconds. Jeff was the king of tone; he could get an armpit to sound like a Harley-Davidson.”

This disarming technical feat began, Batten said, when Beck began using a whoopee cushion as an impromptu musical instrument. He became so accomplished that he could use the cushion to play note-perfect versions of “Because We've Ended as Lovers,” the heavenly Stevie Wonder ballad that has long been a highlight of Beck's concerts.

“There's no end to Jeff's talents,” Batten said.