“A mix of relief and sadness” is how his children described the news, announced by Brazil’s embassy in Argentina. “It is a relief because we can finally know with more certainty what happened to him that sad March of 1976. In some way, we feel closer. Sadness because the confirmation shows Tenório was a victim of violence, buried as an unknown man, far from family, friends, and musical partners,” wrote Elisa, Andrea, Francisco, and Margarida in a statement.
Tenório was the father of five children, the youngest was born one month after his disappearance. They are now calling for a new investigation. “We still want and need answers. Who killed Tenório? Why? Why kill a man with no political ties, who lived only for music?” they asked.
A mysterious disappearance
Tenorinho, celebrated as a rising talent of bossa nova and jazz, was last seen on March 18, 1976, after performing in downtown Buenos Aires. He left Hotel Normandie, where he was staying, to buy cigarettes at a pharmacy and never returned. Days later, on March 24, Argentina’s military coup began.
The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF), an independent scientific organization, identified his remains by comparing fingerprints. His body, found on March 20, 1976, in Don Torcuato, Metropolitan Buenos Aires, showed signs of gunshot wounds. The prints were matched with those on record in Brazil. Although the family has not recovered his remains, Tenorinho was buried in the Benavídez cemetery in Buenos Aires.
At the time, he was touring Uruguay and Argentina alongside Vinicius de Moraes, Toquinho, Mutinho, and Azeitona. Despite not being politically active, his case drew suspicion. One theory is that he was mistaken for a “subversive” because of his beard. Both Brazil and Argentina were then under regimes marked by persecution, kidnappings, torture, and killings of opponents.
A life dedicated to music
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Tenório Júnior began his artistic career at 15, first studying accordion and guitar before dedicating himself to piano, the instrument that made him a household name in Brazilian music.
Alongside renowned musicians, Tenorinho composed, recorded, and toured in Brazil and abroad. By the 1970s, he was considered one of the most sophisticated pianists of his generation, a master in blending bossa nova and jazz.
The confirmation of his death, nearly 50 years later, brought “a small measure of comfort to the family,” said Toquinho, who described him as “a great talent, one of the most important bossa nova musicians.”
His disappearance is remembered in Toquinho and Miltinho’s song Lembranças: “Tenório left alone at night / Disappeared / No one knew how to explain.”
Other artists also paid tribute. Singer Joyce Moreno wrote: “What would he be doing today? How far would his music have gone? Because it wasn’t only the disappearance of a man, terrible as it was. It was also the loss of a unique musical language he had just begun to develop.”
Singer Fafá de Belém added: “One of the greatest musicians Brazil has ever given us. Never again to dictatorship.”
