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

Yesi Ortiz has been chasing a sense of home ever since her mixed-status family was forced to bounce between Southern California, Las Vegas and Baja California, Mexico.

Now, the former radio host of L.A.’s hip-hop station Power 106-FM and cast member of VH1 series “Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood” is building that home herself — by transforming a Historic South-Central food hall with a Michelin-star pedigree into a DIY concert venue. There, she hosts what’s known simply as “The Rehearsal.”

(Because it must be said: No, it’s not related to Nathan Fielder’s HBO series of the same name.)

The Rehearsal, which opened its sixth season last month at Mercado La Paloma, is a live showcase for young musical talent hoping to be seen and for seasoned musicians who want to try out new material in front of an audience. It’s also streamed live on Twitch and YouTube each Friday night.

Ortiz and her team describe it as the kind of show “you go to find the real ones before they break.”

“I love the Tiny Desk comparison because that’s what Tiny Desk used to be: a place to find undiscovered talent,” Rehearsal co-founder Levi Downey explained. “I still love it, but it’s not that anymore.” Downey said NPR Music’s flagship video series has increasingly catered more to established talent, like gospel singer Marvin Sapp, and superstars such as Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish.

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

“I spent a lot of my life basically chasing jobs because I had a family to take care of,” recalled Ortiz, who adopted her seven nieces and nephews when she was in her early 20s. “I had seven kids, my mom, my sister, my brother, my stepdad and my dad, who was in a nursing care facility, who all depended on me. If I need to go work a red carpet so I can get a check, I’m making that happen. If I need to move to Tijuana, I’m making that happen.”

After almost 20 years raising a family while hosting radio shows, reality shows, talk shows and red carpets, Ortiz said the Rehearsal finally feels like she’s gotten to where she was meant to be. “I love music,” she said. “I want to represent my community. I want to represent my people, and that’s all I want to do. I get to do that with [the Rehearsal].”

According to Ortiz, the idea to create a space for “real ones” was born in the spring of 2022 as a counter to L.A.’s notoriously predatory “pay-to-play” live music scene. Pay-to-play is a custom where fledgling artists are given a set number of tickets they have for pre-sale in order to perform at a venue. Any tickets they don’t sell come out of the artists’ own pocket.

In these kinds of deals, artists hardly get a share in any ticket sales.

“I was managing this musician and she was like, ‘I just want to perform onstage,’” Ortiz said. “But the way live music in L.A. works for up-and-coming artists is you have to essentially pay venues to perform there.”

Ortiz partnered with music producer David Tam to turn her Boyle Heights backyard into a showcase for undiscovered talent. “That first show was a disaster,” she recalled. Yet from that show, Ortiz and Tam connected with like-minded musicians, such as Downey and Shani Gaines-Bernard, the niece of disco legend Donna Summer, to create the Rehearsal.

“It feels like a watering hole,” Gaines-Bernard said. “Artists come to [the Rehearsal] to drink and to showcase their stuff.
 Industry people who are looking for new artists come to this watering hole to discover that. There are people that come because they love the vibe. Everyone’s coming to be nourished from this watering hole.”

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

In 2024, Mercado La Paloma became best known for its Michelin-star-winning ceviche counter Holbox — and rightly so. Chef Gilberto Cetina Jr. and his brigade of talented line cooks make an uni-topped ceviche tostada that make the finest caviar blinis seem like Cheese Whiz on Ritz crackers.

But Ortiz pointed out that Mercado La Paloma has always been a place to find community. The Mercado was founded some 30 years ago by Mexican immigrants who missed the beloved open-air markets of their hometowns. These days — at least on Friday nights — the space offers musicians an equitable spotlight.

Ortiz and her team, pictured above, describe the Rehearsal as the kind of show you attend “to find the real ones before they break.”

(Jill Connelly / For De Los)

Ortiz is no stranger to chasing stardom herself. After moonlighting in the music world while working full time as a nurse, Ortiz got her first break hosting a Latin hip-hop show in Las Vegas, then worked stints on music radio stations in Tijuana and San Diego. She eventually landed a hit show on Power 106-FM, L.A.’s No. 1 hip-hop station; for several years, Ortiz led the midday airwaves with her “New at Two” segment, where she would introduce new music from established artists and underground artists that had not broken into the mainstream yet.

“My first day on Power, the music director comes in and he’s like, ‘So I know it’s your first day. Congratulations. You’re interviewing Sean Paul in 10 minutes.’” Ortiz recalled. “I was like, ‘Wait, what? Hold on!’”

She parlayed her radio success into TV notoriety, starring in the first season of “Love & Hip Hop” and hosting an entertainment segment on “The Talk.” Ortiz said she was on a mission to be “the female Ryan Seacrest, because he had lots of jobs.”

Yet these days, she is much more comfortable working with her team to foster the next generation of talent with the Rehearsal. And she hopes it grows to multiple venues, cities and even countries.

“That’s the goal. Just to make a bigger space for more artists. But without losing the intimacy of it,” she said. “We like how it’s small and mighty. But hopefully we can scale that organically.”