ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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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
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
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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