Yesi Ortiz has been chasing a way of house ever since her mixed-status household was pressured to bounce between Southern California, Las Vegas and Baja California, Mexico.
Now, the previous radio host of L.A.’s hip-hop station Energy 106-FM and forged member of VH1 sequence “Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood” is constructing that house herself — by reworking a Historic South-Central meals corridor with a Michelin-star pedigree right into a DIY live performance venue. There, she hosts what’s identified merely as “The Rehearsal.”
(As a result of it have to be mentioned: No, it’s not associated to Nathan Fielder’s HBO sequence of the identical identify.)
The Rehearsal, which opened its sixth season final month at Mercado La Paloma, is a dwell showcase for younger musical expertise hoping to be seen and for seasoned musicians who need to check out new materials in entrance of an viewers. It’s additionally streamed dwell on Twitch and YouTube every Friday night time.
Ortiz and her staff describe it because the sort of present “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 defined. “I still love it, but it’s not that anymore.” Downey mentioned NPR Music’s flagship video sequence has more and more catered extra to established expertise, like gospel singer Marvin Sapp, and superstars corresponding to Unhealthy Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish.
For Ortiz, the Rehearsal represents one thing even deeper: a fruits of many years 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 nearly 20 years elevating a household whereas internet hosting radio exhibits, actuality exhibits, speak exhibits and crimson carpets, Ortiz mentioned the Rehearsal lastly seems like she’s gotten to the place she was meant to be. “I love music,” she mentioned. “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].”
In line with Ortiz, the thought to create an area for “real ones” was born within the spring of 2022 as a counter to L.A.’s notoriously predatory “pay-to-play” dwell music scene. Pay-to-play is a customized the place fledgling artists are given a set variety of tickets they’ve for pre-sale in an effort to carry out at a venue. Any tickets they don’t promote come out of the artists’ personal pocket.
In these sorts of offers, artists hardly get a share in any ticket gross sales.
“I was managing this musician and she was like, ‘I just want to perform onstage,’” Ortiz mentioned. “But the way live music in L.A. works for up-and-coming artists is you have to essentially pay venues to perform there.”
Yesi Ortiz hosts the Rehearsal on Might 23. The musical showcase is live-streamed from Mercado La Paloma in Los Angeles.
(Jill Connelly / For De Los)
Ortiz partnered with music producer David Tam to show her Boyle Heights yard right into a showcase for undiscovered expertise. “That first show was a disaster,” she recalled. But from that present, Ortiz and Tam related with like-minded musicians, corresponding to Downey and Shani Gaines-Bernard, the niece of disco legend Donna Summer season, to create the Rehearsal.
“It feels like a watering hole,” Gaines-Bernard mentioned. “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 summertime of 2023, Ortiz and her staff partnered with Mercado La Paloma to premiere the revamped Rehearsal.
In 2024, Mercado La Paloma grew to become finest identified for its Michelin-star-winning ceviche counter Holbox — and rightly so. Chef Gilberto Cetina Jr. and his brigade of proficient line cooks make an uni-topped ceviche tostada that make the best caviar blinis seem to be Cheese Whiz on Ritz crackers.
However Ortiz identified that Mercado La Paloma has all the time been a spot to seek out neighborhood. The Mercado was based some 30 years in the past by Mexican immigrants who missed the beloved open-air markets of their hometowns. Today — at the least on Friday nights — the house affords musicians an equitable highlight.
Ortiz and her staff, pictured above, describe the Rehearsal because the sort of present you attend “to find the real ones before they break.”
(Jill Connelly / For De Los)
Ortiz is not any stranger to chasing stardom herself. After moonlighting within the music world whereas working full time as a nurse, Ortiz bought her first break internet hosting a Latin hip-hop present in Las Vegas, then labored stints on music radio stations in Tijuana and San Diego. She finally landed successful present on Energy 106-FM, L.A.’s No. 1 hip-hop station; for a number of years, Ortiz led the noon airwaves together with her “New at Two” phase, the place she would introduce new music from established artists and underground artists that had not damaged into the mainstream but.
“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 within the first season of “Love & Hip Hop” and internet hosting an leisure phase on “The Talk.” Ortiz mentioned she was on a mission to be “the female Ryan Seacrest, because he had lots of jobs.”
But today, she is far more snug working together with her staff to foster the following technology of expertise with the Rehearsal. And she or he hopes it grows to a number of venues, cities and even international locations.
“That’s the goal. Just to make a bigger space for more artists. But without losing the intimacy of it,” she mentioned. “We like how it’s small and mighty. But hopefully we can scale that organically.”
