Billy Batts Ensemble at the Omni

The Omni Hotel at CNN Center, actually.  Thanks to a video excerpt from our monthly country club performance downtown, we were hired to perform for a corporate event in the middle of the week.  It's always a good idea to check what is going on in the area when there is an evening engagement.  On this night, Paul McCartney was playing to a sold out Phillips Arena group of well-to-do folks.  I saw Paul a few years ago and it is certainly a show worth seeing.  It was good that we were a bit on the early side, so traffic wasn't as bad as it could have been.  The loading dock to the Omni Hotel is now hidden from Marietta St. since a parking deck has been erected next to the entrance.  Baker St. will get you there.  It was the same entrance that we took to play at the World Congress Center a while back.

We were asked to play very very quietly.  It was dinner music and then mingle music.  We enjoyed a boxed lunch, which was decent.  We played our usual stuff, sticking to instrumental jazz standards that serve us well.  Got some nice compliments from the company president after the event ended.  He is a musician as well.  Sadly, I took pictures but later learned that my micro SD card was missing from my phone and nothing was saved.  I still don't know what happened to it!  The back came off of my phone when it fell, so all I can assume is that the card popped out onto the floor and perhaps got vacuumed up.  I guess I'm missing some apps as well, but haven't noticed.  I have since purchased a 64GB micro SD.  Micro Center had a good deal on a Samsung.  Have to format the card when you install it, which is done via the phone.  I didn't know that and panicked a bit at first, thinking my antiquated Android couldn't accommodate such a large storage device.  It did work eventually, but now the phone always tells me that it is save to remove.

It was most terrific that we were able to get free valet parking.  We are planning on shooting some video for an EPK.  The community and the world needs more Billy Batts.  Hire us, or else we're getting the shine box!