Thursday Night in Washington Heights: SummerStage presents Henry Santos at Highbridge Park

We were busy at work and so were really late for the SummerStage bachata show with K Rose and Grupo 24 Horas in Washington Heights' Highbridge Park.  And then we compounded our lateness by stupidly missing the 168th St stop, so we had to walk all the way down from 181st Street.  We figured we'd missed everything, but we were just at the stage finally when, surprise, Henry Santos was introduced!  Yesterday's show had been canceled due to the downpour, and Henry came back tonight for what proved to be the best concert and free party we went to all summer.

Catherine Fonseca, a really talented photographer, took the photo above of Henry Santos at the show, and she has a whole collection of excellent pics at Fonseca Fotography's Facebook page. On the other hand, our pics with a dumb old cell phone look like this and the remaining ones here:

This show, like most of the Latin music shows we've seen here at Highbridge Park and St. Mary's Park in the South Bronx, was presented in association with Globe Star Media and La Mega 97.9.

Here's what SummerStage said about tonight's dynamite performer in the program notes from last night's postponed show:

Hailing from the Dominican Republic, Henry Santos has helped the bachata group, Aventura achieve phenomenal international success as a singer and composer. His compositions have secured Aventura as one of the most recognizable names in bachata music worldwide, catering to young Latinos in the US as well as audiences across Europe and Latin America. His hybrid “bachata with R&B, hip-hop and big-city attitude” sound has created a “juggernaut,” according to The New York Times. With a successful track record with Aventura, Santos solo debut is highly anticipated by numerous fans.

Each number, to us, seemed better than the next, and the crowd -- especially some teenage girls in front of us -- was extremely enthusiastic. And a lost little kid was brought up on stage and reunited with his family. It was a terrific night, and we walked out of Highbridge Park onto Amsterdam Avenue along with the excited departing crowd, a few of whom were singing a little. We feel lucky we got to see Henry Santos tonight. Here is at last week's Antilliaanse Feesten Hoogstraten 2012 2012, the world's largest Caribbean festival, in Belgium: