Henry Santos is a popular guy, after moving to the Bronx at the age of 14, he formed Los Teenagers and then the hugely succesful Aventura ; a Bachata boy band.
Now he is solo.
And he ended his half hour set at Summerstage with his single "Poquito a poquito" and still failed to thrill the somewhat obstinate audience. A free but you have to get a tix before you enter Summerstage presentation, headlined by the very iffy Wisin Y Yandel, this shoulda vbeen catnip for the audience but it didn't quite gel.
"I am very nervous" Henry noted in his cool blend of Spanglish, and, despite an ill-jugded pulling some poor chick from the audience and singing to her schtick I've seen way too often, he performed an excellent mix of ballads and salsa songs based around an acoustic guitar and featuring two couples dirty dancing.
The songs were unifromly good but he didn't seem to be connecting. Perhaps they didn't know them though later Wisin Y Yandel got a similarly cool. However, Santos set was a little laid back and all the dancing in the world wasn't about to make it more upbeat, songs like "Si Si Si" had the audience sining along but otherwise there was a sense of suspended animation.
The band has a good sound and a hit single ("Poquito a poquito" apparently hasn't done it) might change it fast.
I enjoyed the set so screw the 99% Latin American audience.