MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
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In search of the man who defined Brazil musically
MICHAL BONCZA recommends a book that explores imaginatively the disappearance of Francisco Tenorio Cerqueira, the famed precursor of Brazil’s contemporary popular music
MATTHEW HAWKINS rakes through un-fancy words and flair-free summaries to find who and what might be flamboyant
PETER MASON is exhilarated by an exciting, well-considered and historically minded tribute to the great Trinidadian instrument
Reducing historical lives to ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles, we lose the nuance of those lives and a clearer understanding of past societies, suggests CLAIRE ISABELLA GILMOUR
CHRIS SEARLE relishes the genius of pianist Alexander Hawkins, his many ensembles, and his new album
They Shot The Piano Player
Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, SelfMadeHero, £29.99
ON MARCH 18 1976 one of Brazil’s most innovative musicians of the time, Francisco Tenorio Cerqueira, aka Tenorio Jr, played a concert with Vinicius de Moraes and Toquinho at the Gran Rex in Buenos Aires. He returned to his hotel and his companion, and shortly after 3am the 34-year-old left to buy a sandwich. He was never heard of or seen again.
Argentina was a dangerous place at the time, convulsed by extrajudicial kidnapping and murder instigated against all manner of social activists by a ruthless military junta.
By borrowing from the title of Francois Truffaut’s 1960 film Shoot The Piano Player (The Truffaut films Jules and Jim and The 400 Blows were very popular in Brazil) the authors set the tone for a noir-ish investigation.
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