JENNIFER BATTEN - Guitarist/Studio musician (Michael Jackson, Jeff Beck)

keep your ears open to all genres because if you're gonna make a living a music most of us have to really expand and be able to teach be able to do workshops write books keep creativity at the Koller and just send it every which way Jennifer welcome to the sessions the artists series and we thank you so much for your time to come by here and just give us a little bit of an insight into a life and a career that I have seen over the past several years that I am so impressed I've heard you perform I've heard you speak at events you really have such a great great quality artistic skills really at a high level well bless you that was worth showing up thank you really is I'm so impressed where the music starts for you at a young age it would enter at a young age we let your soul it hit my soul there's two things first my sister had a guitar and I didn't and that I was very jealous everything so I let my parents know the next Christmas I'm next and I and I ended up getting an electric guitar for my first guitar which way back then was a really rare things yeah so I think that made a difference in keeping me going because I got the coolest thing on earth although it's you gotta buy it for 50 bucks it looked like the other half that really motivated me was seeing the Beatles on that Sullivan show you know in my whole town I lived in this little town in upstate New York and the whole town was Beatle crazy February of 1964 okay ed Sullivan that's what it did fantastic yeah yeah it just resonated with me and it that was the coolest thing in the world and when you're that age if it wasn't you know I heard a voice and it was the Beatles voice whether it was Paul singing one song or John it was just to me it was the Beatles sound and the guitars front and center on stage how beautiful yeah so did you start then taking more seriously you start taking lessons how did you learn it yeah I started taking lessons immediately and learning how to read music in a local music shop when I was 9 the family moved to the west coast so I ended up with another teacher well my dad rented a house for a year having another house built so once the other house is built I moved somewhere else within San Diego and ended up with a different teacher so each teacher that I had brought something completely different to the table the first one was very basic I think the Alfred books learning the basics first three notes on the sitting and then the next teacher I remember was a folk teacher started teaching me right hand finger picking techniques the next guy was a blues guy next guy was a rock guy so it was really cool to to be immersed with all that plus my dad he was not a professional musician he was a doctor but he was a jazz freak and that was always playing in the house so what was being played what was your dad playing big band Chico Hamilton Chico Hamilton drummer you know Pass yeah in fact after I got out I think I was doing when I was at GI T I asked him who Jim Hall was and he sent me home with a stack of LPS that this is who he is what cuz you can't put it in words like so this is who he is absolutely and you mentioned Joe past yeah Joe past who I had met several times this was serious that you were listening to these great players yeah at a young age it's it's a DNA I don't know how deeply got in the the gray matter but yeah yeah it was a wonderful backdrop play soon as he was home from work records were on until he went to sleep so now you started meeting musicians you stopped playing in bands what happened at that point oh actually one other thing when I when I was a kid in upstate New York my mother was president of the Arts Council so we bring people through there was an Argentinian guitarist named George Morel the stayed at our house when he came through so I was able to see him practice hours a day classical stuff it was really really rich and then we went to we moved to San Diego that was all my teenage years and I started getting into more rock just whatever it was going on at the time jethro tull that kind of stuff it's just my ears were growing and growing so with our other musicians in the area that you could meet up with and play with were they oh well funny you should say that because I got to the point where I was tired of just practicing in my bedroom and there was a local music shop way before the Internet of course they had they came up with a rolodex card system with musicians that wanted to find other ones would you put your name and what kind of music you're into and your instrument and your phone number and I was so excited when I saw that I go man I'm gonna be in a band and wrote down all these names and took him home on my mother said you are not gonna go out at night and play with strangers ah so I never gig until I was 21 oh my god that rolodex was like Craigslist ahead of the time yeah yeah it was gold for a minute yeah so you meet other musicians so you stopped playing it wasn't till after Gita and my first thing I did was get together well I was into the real book at that time cuz I was at that time I was a serious jazz school there was too serious bebop players Jody Oreo and Ron each day and Don mock was jazz but more fusion side McLoughlin right on his staff Gregory and my first gig I made $12.50 at some restaurant playing tunes from the real book with another guitar player and it was kind of stunning because we rehearsed for weeks and weeks getting tunes down and staring at paper and then we go to the restaurant and we're staring at paper and it's all the sudden there's people looking at us and we're staring at favorite that's suck so that was a lesson in you know memorizing you know you're gonna show now so now your skills are developing because of the needs now you're at performing so well that was great and memorizing it's a very very important skill the real book which has endless amounts of songs in there so you start working on all these different songs you're learning more songs you're playing with other musicians yeah it went quickly maybe was in a car for years going from playing jazz duets to getting in a band and at that point there was a I saw a band and send you go open up for Lee rittenhauer and I thought these guys are local their grades are doing originals I want to be in that band and something about putting that seed into the universe I didn't make any calls and within a week they called me looking for a new guitar player and so I ended up ending with that in that band really cut my teeth with them starting with some fusion stuff George Duke that kind of stuff and and then we get gigs doing weddings so have they get your name was it the rolodex they had they try Ken Hammond you know I don't remember it's so long ago well you must be doing something right that they were aware of what you were doing yeah that must have led them to the to want to have you that's Pat that's fantastic and that same band ended up being a top 40 cover band for a little while too so it was it was a really really great learning experience and how well did GI T prepare you for all this GI t kicked my butt in fact I flunked the test to get in I've been taking these lessons for years and years and years and knew a bunch of songs bunch of techniques but when it came time to take the test to get in one of the one of the things I was asked to play with the president at that time said play of the G major seventh chord and the only G I knew they had a seven was like first position cowboy dominant g7 chord and he asked me a few other things and I had gone to Pasadena City College and taken some theory so I had that kind of stuff together but it wasn't really integrated into my playing yet so I went back to San Diego and studied with Peter Sprague monster jazz player for six really intense months and that was enough to get me into the school fantastic so now you're in the school you're learning you prepared now you're doing these bands you doing cover songs you're doing a wide variety of songs what was the next step from there where did your career go from that point after three years of playing a lot with that band the bass player he had been from LA and the decided he wanted to go back there and it seemed like immediately he got a gig with Johnny Rotten The Sex Pistols with his new band was called public image and we're in San Diego going now wait a minute and with who you wanna go on the road too so one by one we all trot up to LA looking for a fortunate Fame and at gosh that was 1984 then I moved up in 1987 I got the call to audition for Michael Jackson how'd you get that call one of his people who called Musicians Institute because at that time once I moved to LA I was teaching there so they called there and said send us two players and I was one of the lucky people that got to go audition how incredible so yeah his so Michael Jackson's your organization contacts the school yeah and request to players to audition yeah I know it is there's been a few fairytale things in my life incredible how was that audition I mean at the time you listen Michael Jackson still does one of my incredible keynote heroes and there's a writer a singer performer dance everything at all and and huge huge we know he's huge you walk in what happened at the audition well interestingly enough I asked what tunes to learn and when the last possible time I could go in was so I could just stay home and just knock those things into the grey matter bought my first CD player so I could hear more clearly than a cassette at that time yes the changeover of different technology yeah yeah ah so I went in and saw there was no band it was just me in a video camera go and there the only guidance I was given was yeah but most of the gig would be funky rhythm and so I improvised something then I started soloing I had at that time by the time I got the Jackson gig I had done three demos with michael sembello for my first record right and one of the things I had worked out this tapping thing for giant steps so I played that and then the play Johnny yeah but this does that's a Giant Steps Michael Jackson test was kind of rockin version and then tapping and distorted tone and stuff in in the cover band in San Diego as soon as beat it came out I'll never forget it we were setting up at a rehearsal and that came on the radio and everybody just stopped like my guitar solo holy crap that I was just stunning yeah so I set out to learn that and fail three times finally got it and then so years later at the audition I finished the audition with playing the beat it solo how great you know people always ask me well what was it that made him want to pick you and I said I've never asked I just said thank you and gasha a couple years ago a buddy - Steve sworsky is doing a film on female guitar players and he tracked down the guy that shot the video of that audition so 20 years ago by or maybe even more and I saw it that is hysterical I was trying so hard to look cool and I was so clueless thank goodness they had a costumer - what was it like I mean the first witness how was it to get the call to say you're in well the call wasn't that the call was Michaels interested can you come down rehearse with the band and can you take a year off and I said take me anywhere for like any length of time and so I went in and day after day after day I'd play and I was working my butt off with the full band yes yeah Ricky Lawson and Michael was it good yes oh wow he was I couldn't have asked for a better group of people yeah for a rookie you know who was in the bed at that time Ricky Lawson Don Boyett greg phillinganes was a musical director John Clark was the other guitar how am I missing guitar bass drums Chris Corral it was a keyboard player and actually there's three Cube our players Rory Kaplan yeah was another one so you're rehearsing with Michael and what was that like well it wasn't with Michael yet we spent a month just as the band and a lot of that time was tweaking sounds i mean god they had programmers you know trying to get all the sounds that are on the record because those songs were so popular to you the eq on the snare is ingrained in people's heads so there was a lot of effort put into sound so we burger us for a month before we met Michael and I was just subbing out all my other work all this time and and not telling anybody about it because how much would it suck to say I got the Michael Jackson gigging and then it doesn't happen no so mum was the word I just subbed subbed out with no explanation you gotta cover for me so a month in we moved to a bigger sound stage and we had heard that if Michael's happy with the music he'll probably start dancing and he came in and started dancing right away oh yeah I came in with his manager it's like that vision is frozen on my mind forever the manager with the cigar and the ponytail I just remember being introduced to him and just thought this is very magical stunning radiant energy and when he came in he started dancing what was that first rehearsal like with him he started singing with the band and I'm sure he did yeah then you're hearing Michael Jackson yeah with the band that you're in this had to be so real it's such a high level it was it was and even on stage people say well what's it like to play two hundred thousand people and it's it was always surreal always yeah it's part of it especially the last time I felt like I was in a theatre production because I had that leather mask and horrendous the cast it was the first time I had any you know crazy costumes and then they decided to whack out my hair there's a whole transformation every possible level and how did that feel you know playing music and me here you are still a die-hard musician of what it is all that showed this stuff is going on yeah how did you maintain just your composure to stay focused how we rehearsed our butts off that's okay yeah and that is one of the takeaways that I tell people that boy I have never felt over rehearsed I always feel like it I could do if I had another time I could take that time to make it better well so we rehearse so much I mean two months total one with the band singers wearing run room band one room dancers in another room then we all come together with all the special effects and stuff and they're granted there was a lot of time some downtime for special effects like bringing a tank on the stage with remote control seeing that some explosion for the first time we were all out front watching that and I'll never forget that because I was supposed to be right next to a big explosion and a bomb went off and I was supposed to take the guitar and I could go BAM and the explosion would happen and I was I don't know how many yards quite a ways away when we saw it for the first time and even that far away the heat from the fire was oh my god and I have to be right next to that I never saw it on stage I would always go yeah it was really exciting it was so much fun the first tour was a year and a half and when it was over I just wanted to cry yeah this is a real real life again no way Jesus he shut down the Tokyo Disneyland so we could all hang out who does that I'm sure there's a book inside of all that someplace at some point that you could write just on that tour sure yeah it was it was a whole different thing and what a wonderful way to see the world yeah so you finish the tour where to next met what happened next after the first tour was over I went back to michael sembello and finished my first record above low and Beyond right and that's it forever it was a guitar record and he was doing things with a lot bigger budgets so I would get the hours usually 3:00 in the morning to 6:00 or something and the best thing about those sessions was I learned how to do the autopunch so nobody had to be around and not long after that a dad's came out right so I was self-sufficient and loving it so I did the second record several years later in my place you know but what the experience had to write your own stuff that we do said and I know that Michael was a former Stevie Wonder guitarist yeah so he was at me he already had that yeah he knew what he was doing it a very high level yeah and how did you meet him his engineer engineers girlfriend was taking guitar lessons from me mmm so that was a in LA connection somebody knows somebody that knows somebody well you have all these incredible things that have happened that just seemed to fall into place at the right time it's just really amazing I think that's how it's supposed to work I think when you live your life with passion doing what you love doing that there are certain things that happen that way yeah which is beautiful how did you know in the sessions we try to let a lot of the young musicians that are watching this or people that have the desire to play music you know trying to learn from how did you maintain the business on it how did you Joe organize things are you an organized person to make sure that things are on time how do you run your business it's how business is kind of kind of a bit haphazard I mean it's I try to keep it as organized as I can keeping folders with emails and always getting back to people right away and I never make people wait which is a big deal because you could lose a gig absolutely you wait a day and they call somebody else yeah so I'm on top of it that way you know I started doing a seminar a couple summers ago traveling around America and I call it self empowerment for the modern musician mm-hmm and I kind of treat it like TED Talks like every 20 minutes we're gonna go into this new area and things that I want musicians to know that I keep consistently finding that they don't know so I got there from Skype students I said well you know this don't you and it not necessarily scales and arpeggios and stuff it's life skills or apps that are out now that save you a ton of time like what give me an example well there's an app called transcribed yeah that I would start a church with that app if I could it's I just think back to the day when I spent so many hours trying to get everything completely accurate with the cover band or whatever right I want to know exactly what was going on and play accurately and back then it was cassettes and we had these Moran tape decks that you know you take them the motor down and it takes the whole thing down in octaves as well digital age this is transcribed you can slow anything down you can change the pitch which is awesome for singers because a lot of young singers will try to sing in the key that's on the record but at night might not be ideal for them might be their key their range yeah I saw that in School of Rock they had a thing a couple years ago where they brought people from all over the world to perform and there was no some monstrous great players but the one thing I noticed kind of consistently was a lot of the singers would would sing in keys that were they were really struggling with and if they just had transcribed you could pitch it up and just see how that feels you can export it at a different key to the band so you don't have to wait waste time at rehearsals figuring out what key is best and you can you can even grab video from YouTube drag it into it and if you get a video or you see somebody's fingers you could slow that down and see exactly what string they're on see if they're picking or sweet picking yeah it's just phenomenal I learned every song with it now so that's that's one of the ones I'm very passionate about if I was to ask you to name me five guitar players that influenced you alive or dead yeah who would you name uh Jody Oriole yeah yeah yeah he had a huge influence on me uh with the intervallic jumps string skipping and just a very unique sound made hardcore bebop but then he went the way of Coltrane and Eddie hair he played with Eddie Harris and Eddie Harris was into the intervallic stuff that was from Nicholas leninsky he's got a book other two sorts of scales and melodic patterns and it's is like fly poop on paper it's crazy but it just really makes you think in a whole different way so Jody Oreo definitely Jeff Beck was and still is my hero I mean that ultimate guitar player the technique you had the chance to play with him that this must have been an incredible another high again for yeah that was definitely a but that dream doesn't happen it's not even a dream I had with him because he played with keyboard players yeah I didn't even give it any thought that I could one day be on stage with him I just tracked him down for an autograph and gave him a CD thinking okay bucket-list cross off and the way that he he's called a couple months later said I finally had a chance to listen to your record properly and let's do one together said Wow when you play with Jeff when was that 97 is when we actually played agency and the are there any DVDs or anything out that's available that has been yeah yeah that we did a TV show in Tokyo 1999 yeah that's available that's fantastic so did Jeff Beck who else we just say Hulu be number three guitar player oh god there's so many great guitar players it's you know I'm into Leigh Leigh's Brad Paisley no wait to say yeah and I'm not a country fan but his playing is so wacky he's one of those guys like like Michael except he doesn't dance that's so talented in so many different areas he makes videos his his lyrics are hilarious you know and it's just one of those energies that just stands out from the crowd so that's one Steve Morris Steve yeah Preston Reed all right there's another one in it I mean at this point I'd really like to listen to people to do things that I don't do because it's so fresh to my ear like the whole country guitar vocabulary is a foreign language to me yeah so I enjoy it well it's fantastic to experience that so are you doing any teaching at all not that much as far as one-on-one I do skypes sometimes all over the planet which I'm having to get out my app go okay Australia if you want it on the 4th I have to do it they change the time change I go through all that too and my teaching is fantastic yeah and a lot of clinics I've taught it colleges then the claims for Washburn a lot for digitech yeah effects and now with Fishman with the triple play MIDI system yeah really having a ball with that and this the seminar that I put on a couple years ago I'm working on eventually banking it's something that you can stream because people are writing me all the time we're gonna get it well I did one in Switzerland three months ago and there was another one in Maine you know and the technology has changed as we know the tremendous yeah but you said you use Skype so you'll do some Skype you know lessons that's fantastic that you'll have that level of rapport with someone yes so unbelievably cool and I've also done it two entire classes so they can bring me into the classroom and I don't have to get out of my jammies I saw you give a clinic when so many many years ago and you just you just never need to speak so well but you played so great well thank you and to see the owner it's just being or and as a great role model it's a woman to be out there in this crazy business I mean it really is incredible to have that level of exposure that you've had that you've opened the doors and opportunities from many many other women have the confidence these young men would have the comments to go out there and say Jennifer I can do it yeah you know back in the day yeah when I was with Michael Jackson I thought okay the revolution has begun because Prince hand weddy and Lisa yeah a Billy Idol had a woman in his band at the time on MTV high rotation and I thought wow things are really changing and I when I went to giti I didn't realize how rare it was for a woman to play a guitar yeah you know other than strumming a few chords is singing when I arrived day one I found out it was me and 59 guys that was it as far as the revolution happening in 87 when when Jackson happened pretty much 30 years went behind nothing now with the Internet now people can see other people has there's not a month that goes by I don't see some seven-year-old in Thailand that can kick my butt yeah in all instruments I see it on the drumming scenes yeah unbelievable yeah the power of being able to see somebody play yeah and I think being able to slow it down you know it exactly what they're doing yeah that's super powerful there's there's so many women I was hanging with Gretchen men last night and nearly Brosh and it's like the whole new generation of kick about women is happening they're coming up that's absolutely but yeah but you let a very serious path and you open up many many doors what motivates you what what drives you in the morning to get up and stay focus on the power of music creativity number one the power of creativity and it doesn't for me it doesn't have to be music anymore hmm I get into visual arts I do a solo show in sync with videos that I make and I get so obsessed I could sit there for 14 hours if I didn't have to get up and pee I wouldn't be one of those things that just makes you lose time it's just wonderful and then I'm so hyper aware now that no matter what my mood is if I play for an hour it's gonna change my brain chemistry and it's it's very healing so I'm one of the motivators is it just keeps me sane and I know it yeah so I keep doing it are they young guitarists that you see that that really you have faith that they're the next generation absolutely so my point is you're starting to see this next generation that this Sutton I really can't come to the table yeah it's amazing to witness oh it's so joyous to see it you know when so many kids are into video games and staying in their phones yeah that there are thousands of people that really want to play and are getting off on inventing something new yeah yeah that's makes me happy that's fantastic you know the sessions this these artists series are about you know this next generation to be able to see great musicians that have come before them to understand a little bit more about their history and to understand more about you know the business side of what it takes you're obviously an organized person you make things happen you're motivated and you you create things to happen for you yeah and that's why you have had and continue to have this incredible career that's very very powerful in closing what would you say to this next generation of what they should do to prepare themselves for a career music for them for that but just the sheer passion that they feel what can you give them to deliver them to be able to reach their dreams one thing is to keep it ears open I remember when I was at G iti was jazz was it that's it I was listening to Charlie Parker three hours a day I remember I remember making a crack - Bob Magnusson upright bass player one time about how jazz is so superior and he kind of shut me down and said he keep your ears open to all genres and that that was kind of a slap upside the head yeah and very powerful because if you're gonna make a living in music you can't just be the next Van Halen you know it might work for you but most of us have to really expand and be able to teach be able to do workshops write books play various styles with various musicians yeah just keep creativity at the core and just send it every which way so be open to all different genres yeah have an open mind absolutely hard work you obviously have worked hard and continue to work hard at your craft and writing and composing that is a really admirable quality that a lot of these young kids probably should have it's the the satisfaction of it that keeps me coming back it's not like it's off damn I got to write a song today that's like wow where could this go I just heard this new drum groove and that's making me want to do this yeah and I started working for true fire doing lessons online and I got a few courses out and they they do a lick series even two courses licks a lot of different kinds of things yeah and that just sometimes a seed is planted and at first I think oh I don't want to go that direction and then a week later I'm starting to go that direction you know just exploring and coming up with new stuff they to keep music fresh for myself one yeah that's huge but I love you enthusiasm I love your passion for music as a player you really inspire in every note that you play really have that thank you so much yeah and going back to the all your influences from listening to the records of years ago you really have opened them doors for many great musicians not just women many many guys that are inspired by your playing so I think what you have done and what you could you need to do is so unbelievable that you're on this wave of just pushing it forward and you continue to do that on behalf of the sessions we wish you the best of luck Jennifer [Music]

Channel: The Sessions Panel

Views: 21,071

Rating: 4.9099097 out of 5

Keywords: TheSessionsPanel, Dom Famularo, Artist Series, The Sessions, Guitar, Michael Jackson, Guitarist, Music Education, Music business, Jennifer Batten, Jules Follett

Id: chhI1vnKLq4

Length: 31min 22sec (1882 seconds)

Published: Fri May 18 2018