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 18 March 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.

They Shot the Piano Player is a graphic novel to rival Maus or Persepolis. Its story is a reminder of recent history which, though only half a century old, seems very yesteryear. * The Indiependent *
Well, simply put, it’s glorious… It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Bossa Nova fan per se; all you need to know is that Trueba and Mariscal have knocked it out of the park all over again. * Bookmunch *
They Shot the Piano Player is "spectacularly drawn, particularly the night-scapes, and related with candour — it is a page-turner as the narrator closes in on the truth about the fatal night." * Morning Star *
It’s a loving biography, a mystery and a memorial. * Slings & Arrows *

Javier Mariscal is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer. After winning instant acclaim in 1979 for the bar-sky-wave logo for his adoptive city of Barcelona, he went on to create Cobi (the mascot of the city’s 1992 Olympics) and Twipsy, a character designed for the Hanover 2000 Expo that later featured in an animated TV series. Born in Valencia, he opened Estudio Mariscal in Barcelona in 1989, and was the subject of a major retrospective at London’s Design Museum in 2009. An exhibition of his work opened in Barcelona in September 2010 at the Pedrera, one of Gaudí’s most famous buildings. Fernando Trueba is a multi-award-winning writer, director, and producer, with a career spanning more than three decades in film, television, documentaries, theatre, and music. His many directing credits include Belle Époque (1992), La niña de tus ojos (1998), and Calle 54 (2000), a Latin-jazz documentary that prompted his enduring collaboration and friendship with Javier Mariscal.