They Shot the Piano Player

By Fernando Trueba & Javier Mariscal. Published by Self Made Hero.

Hardcover, 256 pages, Colour, 2024

A New York music journalist goes on a quest to uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of the young Brazilian piano virtuoso (and pioneer of samba-jazz), Tenório Jr.

An investigation and celebration of the origins of the world-renowned Latino musical samba-jazz movement Bossa Nova, They Shot The Piano Player captures a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning-point in Latin American history in the ’60s and ’70s, before the continent was riven by totalitarian regimes. Francisco Tenório Cerqueira Júnior, born in Rio de Janeiro, was one of the most recognized musicians of the samba-jazz movement. At 3 a.m. on March 18, 1976, after giving a concert at the Gran Rex in Buenos Aires, the 34-year-old pianist went out to get some cigarettes. He was never seen again. What happened that night? This is the question that moves the narrator of this documentary graphic novel to initiate an investigation into the fateful events that led to the death of a musician destined to change the course of Brazilian music forever.