L.A.'s answer to Tiny Desk is hiding inside Mercado La Paloma

Yesi Ortiz has been chasing a consciousness of location ever since her mixed-status household was forced to bounce betwixt Southern California, Las Vegas and Baja California, Mexico.

Now, the erstwhile vigor big of L.A.’s hip-hop presumption Power 106-FM and formed subordinate of VH1 bid “Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood” is gathering that location herself — by transforming a Historic South-Central nutrient hallway with a Michelin-star pedigree into a DIY performance venue. There, she hosts what’s known simply arsenic “The Rehearsal.”

(Because it indispensable beryllium said: No, it’s not related to Nathan Fielder’s HBO bid of the aforesaid name.)

The Rehearsal, which opened its sixth play past period astatine Mercado La Paloma, is simply a unrecorded showcase for young philharmonic endowment hoping to beryllium seen and for seasoned musicians who privation to effort retired caller worldly successful beforehand of an audience. It’s besides streamed unrecorded connected Twitch and YouTube each Friday night.

Ortiz and her squad picture it arsenic the benignant of amusement “you spell to find the existent ones earlier they break.”

“I emotion the Tiny Desk examination due to the fact that that’s what Tiny Desk utilized to be: a spot to find undiscovered talent,” Rehearsal co-founder Levi Downey explained. “I inactive emotion it, but it’s not that anymore.” Downey said NPR Music’s flagship video bid has progressively catered much to established talent, similar gospel vocalist Marvin Sapp, and superstars specified arsenic Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish.

For Ortiz, the Rehearsal represents thing adjacent deeper: a culmination of decades spent navigating survival, sacrifice and ambition.

“I spent a batch of my beingness fundamentally chasing jobs due to the fact that I had a household to instrumentality attraction of,” recalled Ortiz, who adopted her 7 nieces and nephews erstwhile she was successful her aboriginal 20s. “I had 7 kids, my mom, my sister, my brother, my stepdad and my dad, who was successful a nursing attraction facility, who each depended connected me. If I request to spell enactment a reddish carpet truthful I tin get a check, I’m making that happen. If I request to determination to Tijuana, I’m making that happen.”

(Jill Connelly/For De Los)

After astir 20 years raising a household portion hosting vigor shows, world shows, speech shows and reddish carpets, Ortiz said the Rehearsal yet feels similar she’s gotten to wherever she was meant to be. “I emotion music,” she said. “I privation to correspond my community. I privation to correspond my people, and that’s each I privation to do. I get to bash that with [the Rehearsal].”

According to Ortiz, the thought to make a abstraction for “real ones” was calved successful the outpouring of 2022 arsenic a antagonistic to L.A.’s notoriously predatory “pay-to-play” unrecorded euphony scene. Pay-to-play is simply a customized wherever fledgling artists are fixed a acceptable fig of tickets they person for pre-sale successful bid to execute astatine a venue. Any tickets they don’t merchantability travel retired of the artists’ ain pocket.

In these kinds of deals, artists hardly get a stock successful immoderate summons sales.

“I was managing this instrumentalist and she was like, ‘I conscionable privation to execute onstage,’” Ortiz said. “But the mode unrecorded euphony successful L.A. works for up-and-coming artists is you person to fundamentally wage venues to execute there.”

Yesi Ortiz hosts the Rehearsal connected May 23. The philharmonic showcase is live-streamed from Mercado La Paloma successful Los Angeles.

(Jill Connelly / For De Los)

Ortiz partnered with euphony shaper David Tam to crook her Boyle Heights backyard into a showcase for undiscovered talent. “That archetypal amusement was a disaster,” she recalled. Yet from that show, Ortiz and Tam connected with like-minded musicians, specified arsenic Downey and Shani Gaines-Bernard, the niece of disco fable Donna Summer, to make the Rehearsal.

“It feels similar a watering hole,” Gaines-Bernard said. “Artists travel to [the Rehearsal] to portion and to showcase their stuff.
 Industry radical who are looking for caller artists travel to this watering spread to observe that. There are radical that travel due to the fact that they emotion the vibe. Everyone’s coming to beryllium nourished from this watering hole.”

In the summertime of 2023, Ortiz and her squad partnered with Mercado La Paloma to premiere the revamped Rehearsal.

In 2024, Mercado La Paloma became champion known for its Michelin-star-winning ceviche antagonistic Holbox — and rightly so. Chef Gilberto Cetina Jr. and his brigade of talented enactment cooks marque an uni-topped ceviche tostada that marque the finest caviar blinis look similar Cheese Whiz connected Ritz crackers.

But Ortiz pointed retired that Mercado La Paloma has ever been a spot to find community. The Mercado was founded immoderate 30 years agone by Mexican immigrants who missed the beloved open-air markets of their hometowns. These days — astatine slightest connected Friday nights — the abstraction offers musicians an equitable spotlight.

Ortiz and her team, pictured above, picture the Rehearsal arsenic the benignant of amusement you be “to find the existent ones earlier they break.”

(Jill Connelly / For De Los)

Ortiz is nary alien to chasing stardom herself. After moonlighting successful the euphony satellite portion moving afloat clip arsenic a nurse, Ortiz got her archetypal interruption hosting a Latin hip-hop amusement successful Las Vegas, past worked stints connected euphony vigor stations successful Tijuana and San Diego. She yet landed a deed amusement connected Power 106-FM, L.A.’s No. 1 hip-hop station; for respective years, Ortiz led the midday airwaves with her “New astatine Two” segment, wherever she would present caller euphony from established artists and underground artists that had not breached into the mainstream yet.

“My archetypal time connected Power, the euphony manager comes successful and he’s like, ‘So I cognize it’s your archetypal day. Congratulations. You’re interviewing Sean Paul successful 10 minutes.’” Ortiz recalled. “I was like, ‘Wait, what? Hold on!’”

She parlayed her vigor occurrence into TV notoriety, starring successful the archetypal play of “Love & Hip Hop” and hosting an amusement conception connected “The Talk.” Ortiz said she was connected a ngo to beryllium “the pistillate Ryan Seacrest, due to the fact that helium had tons of jobs.”

Yet these days, she is overmuch much comfy moving with her squad to foster the adjacent procreation of endowment with the Rehearsal. And she hopes it grows to aggregate venues, cities and adjacent countries.

“That’s the goal. Just to marque a bigger abstraction for much artists. But without losing the intimacy of it,” she said. “We similar however it’s tiny and mighty. But hopefully we tin standard that organically.”