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John "Screech" Arietano


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Just got the news my old friend John Arietano has lost his battle with cancer. Sharing here my post from FB about this:

My apologies if this is a bit long... but I feel like I've been punched in the face here with the news of this gentleman's passing...

Rest in peace, John "Screech" Arietano.

A friend since 1971... and one of the most talented brass arrangers in all of marching music, IMO.

He was a big reason why I ended up joining the Long Island Sunrisers drum corps in 1977. During the early 1970s, John not only was a soprano player for the Sunrisers (one of the best high-note players in drum corps history... thus the nickname "Screech")... but also was the brass arranger for the junior corps I was with... the Sacred Heart Crusaders of Manville, NJ.

He persuaded my brother Lenny to join Sun for the 1974 season after Lenny left Manville.... and that opened the pipeline from the Crusaders to the Sunrisers. The many of us who moved up to Sun from Manville become known as the Sunrisers' "Jersey Crew." (Famous or infamous, depending on whom you ask...LOL.)

John become the principal brass arranger for Sun, circa 1977... and again IMO, his great brass charts were one of the keys to the corps winning its first four DCA championships,1977-78 and 1982-83. In 1978, our horn line won the High Brass trophy at DCA Finals, and we were the first corps in DCA history to score a perfect "10" in a General Effect caption when we achieved a 10 in Brass GE at Finals that year. Sun won another High Brass trophy in 1983 with John writing the book.

He went on to considerable success arranging for and performing with several other corps, and added five more DCA championship titles to his resume' (1984 and '85 with the Hawthorne Caballeros, 1996 with the Westshoremen, and the 1999 and 2002 DCA Class A titles with the Skyliners). He also arranged for, and helped teach, numerous bands on the high school and college levels.

I plead guilty here... I have not been in touch with John in the past few years as much as I had been for many years before that. And I regret I won't get the chance to chat with him, or have a beer with him, again. We had so many good times together through the years.

My heart goes out to his wife Nancy (I marched with her in the Crusaders and we've been friends since then).

Again... rest in peace, my old friend.

Edited by Fran Haring
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Condolences to the Arietano family and the Sunrisers family. Screech was associated with many drum corps and we are all richer for that. Rest in Peace.

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