Vida

Recording information: Phantom Vox Studios, Los Angeles, CA.Photographer: Angela Alvarado.After an encounter with mortality, one tends to take stock of life with a sense of gratitude and renewed purpose. Robi Draco Rosa goes one better on Vida, his first recording after winning a battle with cancer. A quick look at the track listing, and one might think of this as a greatest-hits comp. And it is; but with so many twists and turns, and everything ambitiously re-arranged and re-recorded, that it becomes a dazzling new entry in the artist's already significant catalog. Rosa assembled a tremendous cast of guests from many parts of the Latin music world to re-record his hits. They include the current crop of Latin superstars, from Shakira and Juanes to urban artists such as Tego Calderón and Calle 13, bachata all-stars such as Romeo Santos, and even Latin rock & rollers Maná. To shrink the generational as well as genre boundaries, he also recruited legends such as Juan Luis Guerra, Rubé