Janires Magalhães Manso

Janires "Jaja" Magalhães Manso (; May22, 1953January11, 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.

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 , 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.

After leaving Rebanhão, he moved to Belo Horizonte, where he started a radio program, besides doing evangelization work with young people at the movement 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 , 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.

Even with his short career, the singer is considered one of the greatest composers of contemporary Christian music and his works have been re-recorded by several musicians, besides being an influence to others. In recognition of his contribution to music, he was honored by various ensembles and artists in a live event recorded on CD, entitled .

Early life Janires Magalhães Manso was born in Vitória, Espírito Santo in May22, 1953. He never met his biological father and lived his early life with his mother Luzia. Since his childhood he did not understand his mother's explanations and advice, and ended up getting involved with drugs at the age of twelve, living this reality for about seven years.

He was arrested in the act. However, thanks to the help of his mother and another woman, he managed to be transferred to the Youth Challenge Program in Brasília. With the support of a teacher named Gaudino, the future musician and his mother learned about Christianity in the program. Janires stayed there for nine months, forming bonds with the people who worked in that place. However, he had to go through a trial, where he was sentenced to one year in prison and payment of eleven salaries. However, his name was exchanged with that of another inmate, and Janires ended up returning to the youth program.

In the program, he became active in music, writing his first Christian compositions, and remained there until he was freed. 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.

In 1983, the group's second album, , 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".

In December 1984, Rebanhão recorded the first live album in Brazilian Christian music, the LP , 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 May of that year, Janires went to Goiânia to see the soccer player Baltazar again, one of his friends. At that time he also met Carlinhos Veiga.

Together with several musicians, he began singing, preaching, and leading worship at before a crowd of young people, and on Mondays at the well-known . After returning from a season in the United States, the musician was excited to do a new job. After an unusual event in a restaurant located in the Bus Station of Belo Horizonte, he chose the name of the new band he was forming: Banda Azul.

Death On January11, 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 a.m. BRT, 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.

Legacy 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.

Several contemporary musicians, besides those of his time declared to be influenced, listened to or re-recorded songs of his authorship recorded by Rebanhão and Banda Azul, such as Luiz Arcanjo, Carlinhos Felix, Marcos Almeida, Alex Gonzaga, Paulo César Baruk, Bruno Branco and Marcus Salles.

In 2003, a group of Protestant musicians got together at the Camp, in Belo Horizonte, and interpreted some of the singer's compositions. The production was from the movement Youth for Christ and the songs were performed by , , , , , , , , , and . The live recording was entitled .

Discography 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. was the second record, released in 1983, and two years later his first live album and the only one in his career, , was released. After that, Janires recorded with the Banda Azul in 1987. However, by the time it hit the stores Janires was already dead.

1979: Rebanhão 1981: Mais Doce que o Mel 1983: Luz do Mundo 1985: Janires e Amigos 1988: Espelho nos Olhos