His piano can be heard on anthological albums of Brazilian music such as Arte Maior (1963) by Leny Andrade (with the "Tenório Jr. Trio"), É Samba Novo (1964) by Edson Machado, O LP(1964) by Os Cobras, Vagamente (1964) by Wanda Sá and Desenhos (1966) by Vitor Assis Brasil.

In 1976, after a show in Buenos Aires, in which he accompanied with a great performance the famous musicians Vinicius de Moraes and Toquinho, Tenório Júnior disappeared without a trace.

At the time several versions ran, as quoted by singer Elis Regina in an interview to Folha de S.Paulo on 3 June 1979, that he had been seen in jail in La Plata City; this was never confirmed.

The story of Calloni converges with the interview Claudio Vallejos published in the magazine Senhor, in which the former Argentine military claimed that Brazilian agents had been present during the execution of Tenório Júnior, which occurred nine days after his arrest.

The Commission was created by President Raúl Alfonsín on 15 December 1983, shortly after the return of democracy, to investigate the fate of the desaparecidos (victims of forced disappearance) and other human rights violations during the military dictatorship.

In 1986, when former Argentinian corporal Claudio Vallejos came to Brazil and gave a revealing interview to Senhor, the production house VIDECOM of São Paulo, along with Rogério Lima, managed to record his testimony, which was used as the basis for a documentary about Tenório Júnior, which chronicles the tragedy that befell on the musician.

His arrest had been requested to Interpol by the Argentine federal prosecutor who handles the criminal proceedings linked to Operation Condor, the military-political alliance between the dictatorships of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay in the 1970s and 1980s, which was sponsored by the United States government.

Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal released the animated feature film They Shot the Piano Player (Dispararon Al Pianista), about Tenório's disappearance, in 2022.