In the film, a journalist (voiced by Jeff Goldblum) is intrigued hearing an unfamiliar pianist on a Bossa Nova album, and goes down a rabbit hole of trying to find out who Tenório Jr was, why he disappeared, and what really happened to him.
Originally it was planned as a documentary, with Trueba doing hundreds of hours of interviews with jazz luminaries like Chico Buarque, João Donato, Edu Lobo, Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, Toquinho, Caetano Veloso, and more, but the documentary aspect evolved into a stylized, artistic animated feature which mirrors the vibrant feel of the music.
AllMusic spoke with Fernando Trueba about the making of the film, the research that went into it, and what he’s working on next.
AllMusic: While on paper “They Shot the Piano Player” could be approached as a straightforward biopic (underappreciated musician is unearthed, the story is revealed, there is a happy resolution), the film itself is more like a detective story—music writer “Jeff Harris” uses connections, research, archived documents, and boots-on-the-ground interviews to unearth the story that was either hidden or misattributed for decades. How did you decide on this engaging approach?
Trueba: I like to call it a musical-thriller-political-documentary. I take the decision of animation based on my experience in the meantime with my first animation feature, “Chico & Rita“.
A documentary would have been “another” one about a “desaparecido” (missing) people, with a lot of close ups of talking heads remembering. A conventional biopic with actors, I would never believe, so I thought that animation recreation would be the fairest way to approach Tenório, his music and his story.
AllMusic: This film is a deep dive into the world of Bossa Nova and MPB, and music played a huge role in “Chico & Rita,” your other film with artist Javier Mariscal. Is there something inherent in these musical styles that leads itself to being represented by this unique kind of stylized animation?
Trueba: We choose very different styles of animation, even if Mariscal’s style is kind recognizable. We wanted in this one a less “romantic” approach, something more “rough”. There are two historical parts in “They Shot the Piano Player.” There were completely necessary because for understanding Tenório’s story you should know the context (musical mostly) of his “appearance,” the musical revolution in Brazil at the end of the ’50s and beginning of the ’60s. And also, the historical and political context of this death, the Argentinian coup d’etat and the Latin-American history of that period. Is also a didactic movie. I’m sure very few young people know anything about all that.
AllMusic: So much of the research in the film is spent poring over documents, whether it is sheet music, news clippings, archival footage, or digging through liner notes on physical media (LPs and CDs). How important do you feel documenting the events “as they are happening” is to capturing moments for posterity/history?
Trueba: Crucial. I filmed 135 interviews in Brazil, USA, Spain and France over 2-3 years. They were the basis for the screenplay.
AllMusic: Did you run into dead ends where you felt that the facts that were documented in text (liner notes, music essays, studio records, etc) were incomplete?
Trueba: All the time. There were holes everywhere—in the memories of the people, in the real facts…never really completely clear. There were many different versions, sometimes contradictory ones.
AllMusic: One of my personal highlights from the film was when the music writer Jeff Harris encountered a name on a recording he had never heard before, and he went straight to AllMusic to dig deeper into this person’s credits. As a filmmaker, what made you think of AllMusic as a resource for getting more info on this little-known jazz artist?
Trueba: That happened to me when I was investigating for the story. At the time there was no way to find the record, and I found one in Tokyo, through eBay, so that’s how I got it. It was later reprinted in Brazil, some years later. I’m talking about 2005!
AllMusic: What are you working on next? Is it tied to music in some way?
Trueba: Yes, it is. I just finished BAJAÑÍ. Is my second “musical” after “Calle 54.” 100% music, no blablabla at all. It’s the travel of a flamenco guitar(ist), Niño Josele, in three different musical universes: first Flamenco (shot in Spain), secondly Jazz (New York), and the third act in Brazil (São Paulo and Rio). We have guest artists such as Ron Carter, Kenny Barron, Artemis, Caetano Veloso, Rubén Blades, Marisa Monte, etc… It was an incredible experience for us, a dream made true. And I hope for the audience will be too.
“They Shot the Piano Player” is available on Netflix and other streaming platforms.
