Janires

In 2003, a group of Protestant musicians got together at the Som do Céu Camp, in Belo Horizonte, and interpreted some of the singer's compositions. The production was from the movement Mocidade para Cristo (English: Youth for Christ) and the songs were performed by Banda Azul, Baixo e Voz, Verso Livre, Cia de Jesus, Expresso Luz, Nelson Bomilcar, Jorge Camargo, Paulinho Marotta, MPC Band, and Carlinhos Veiga. The live recording was entitled Tributo a Janires.

Janires is often pointed out as one of those responsible for the modernization of Christian music. His compositions and his peculiar way of Christian life served as an influence for many musicians. Rebanhão and Banda Azul, his creations, are considered to be the precursors of the so-called gospel movement, which gained strength in the 1990s.

After leaving Rebanhão, he moved to Belo Horizonte, where he started a radio program, besides doing evangelization work with young people at the movement Mocidade para Cristo (English: Youth for Christ). At the same time, he founded the Banda Azul, which even before releasing its first album already had a certain notoriety in the segment. Unfortunately, before the release of Espelho nos Olhos, Janires was victim of a fatal traffic accident in January 1988, and his body was buried in Brasília. His work released that year was greatly acclaimed by the public.

On January 11, 1988, leaving Rio de Janeiro, Janires took a bus in the direction of Belo Horizonte. As the bus was passing through the city of Três Rios in the early hours of the same day, around 3:30 in the morning, it got involved in a fatal accident, with Janires dying on the spot. He was supposed to arrive in town that day to attend in the "Clubão", where an audience of one thousand young people was waiting for him, but he didn't show up. Friends from Mocidade para Cristo in Petrópolis recognized the body, and soon the institution's office in Belo Horizonte was notified of the fatality.

In July 1987, he and Banda Azul produced what would be Janires' last album, Espelho nos Olhos. The work was recorded in a studio in Rio de Janeiro. However, with his death early the following year the work would be released after his death in May 1988.

In December 1984, Rebanhão recorded the first live album in Brazilian Christian music, the LP Janires e Amigos, recorded in the auditorium of Rádio Boas Novas to commemorate the ten years of Janires' conversion, where the singer, along with band members, paid homage to several friends. The record was released in 1985.

In 1983, the group's second album, Luz do Mundo, was released, in which the singer also participated. Launched in the middle of the military dictatorship in Brazil, Janires ironized the policies and the management of the military government. In this Rebanhão record, he expresses his opinion clearly in verses of the song "Casa no Céu": "There will be no neighbors complaining about the increase in gas prices there", "There will be no holes in the middle of the street there", "There will be no pickpockets or thieves disrespecting the 80km/h speed limit, fleeing from pollution there". In the same work he criticizes the way people live, as in the song "Hoje sou Feliz", where he says: "And I found out that I live in a South American country full of supermen flying and drinking from bar to bar, that artists seduce girls and good guys and bad guys are killing each other on the street corners, oh, how it hurts, to know that what is going on in the country it is not a child's dream".

He was the founder and one of the vocalists of Rebanhão, the first Christian rock band in Brazil to achieve national notoriety. In the band, he composed several songs, among which "Baião" and "Casinha" stand out. The group's first work was Mais Doce que o Mel, released in 1981 and which was criticized by religious leaders for using sounds that were previously forbidden in churches, such as distorted guitars and lyrics contextualized with the social and economic reality of the time. However, the band was a success with the young public, presenting a new musicality for that generation. Janires' last work in the group was the album Janires e Amigos, considered the first Christian album recorded live in Brazil, released in 1985. After that, he left the group, but always keeping in touch with its members.

Marotta also said that in Rebanhão, everyone had freedom to produce, and that Janires was totally unusual. However, the recording of the group's first work was involved in several difficulties. Mais Doce que o Mel was released by the Doce Harmonia recording company in 1981, with a repercussion that exceeded the expectations of the members. From then on, Rebanhão became known, but also had its work criticized for mixing rhythms and using instruments forbidden inside most churches, also accused of containing subliminal messages. However, Mais Doce que o Mel sold over one hundred and fifty thousand copies in Brazil. The LP's repertoire contained several songs written by Janires, such as "Baião" and "Casinha", which became some of his best known compositions in the Christian environment.

Paulo Marotta tells that he met the founder of the Rebanhão in 1979 in meetings at the Presbyterian church in Copacabana, and that his appearance was totally against the beauty standards of that time: dark brown and unkempt hair, thin and slender, wearing a faded jeans jumpsuit. His teeth were white and his smile, according to him, was unmistakable. His words were different and good, joining his life experiences, and his compositions always brought words of praise to Jesus. His sermons were sometimes very different from what preachers used to give, often harsh. Just as he appeared, he disappeared. Marotta also tells that with Janires' belongings he had several copies in cassette tape of the band he formed in São Paulo, with several songs that would later be part of the first work of that band.

In his lifetime, Janires recorded several works, with the first being an unreleased 1979 cassette tape. The repertoire of the work was distributed in the first work of Rebanhão, Mais Doce que o Mel. Luz do Mundo was the second record, released in 1983, and two years later his first live album and the only one in his career, Janires e Amigos, was released. After that, Janires recorded Espelho nos Olhos with the Banda Azul in 1987. However, by the time it hit the stores Janires was already dead.

Janires Magalhães Manso or Janires (Vitória, May 22, 1953 – Três Rios, January 11, 1988), was a Brazilian singer, songwriter, music producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist. He began his career in the late 1970s, and is best known as the person responsible for the modernization of Christian music that occurred in the 1980s. Born into a poor family and the son of a single mother, he spent part of his youth in strong contact with music, and later began to use drugs. After being arrested and spending some time in a halfway house, he became a Christian and returned to his musical activities.