{"id":18986,"date":"2017-04-06T19:31:07","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T00:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=18986"},"modified":"2017-04-06T19:31:07","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T00:31:07","slug":"the-wailing-mailman-retired-letter-carrier-jazz-musician-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2017\/04\/06\/the-wailing-mailman-retired-letter-carrier-jazz-musician-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wailing Mailman\u2019 &#8211; Retired letter carrier, jazz musician dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-thumbnail link-fullfeature\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-twentyfourteen-full-width size-twentyfourteen-full-width wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/WailingMailman_large-story.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/WailingMailman_large-story.jpg 900w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/WailingMailman_large-story-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/WailingMailman_large-story-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/WailingMailman_large-story-120x80.jpg 120w\" alt=\"Wailing mailman\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"link-caption\">Roger \u201cBuck\u201d Hill is shown playing his saxophone during his postal career. The inset photo shows Hill a few years before his death. Images: Washington City Paper, DC Jazz Fest<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<p>USPS News Link &#8211; 4\/6\/17 &#8211; The recent death of a retired letter carrier and renowned jazz musician in the Washington, DC, area is sparking loving tributes from his admirers.<\/p>\n<p>Roger \u201cBuck\u201d Hill died last month at age 90. He was a musician for six decades and also had a 40-year postal career that inspired a memorable moniker: \u201cThe Wailing Mailman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/entertainment\/music\/buck-hill-jazz-saxophonist-and-dc-local-legend-dies-at-90\/2017\/03\/24\/cbb820ce-0fda-11e7-9b0d-d27c98455440_story.html?utm_term=.c5c2bdacc26d\" target=\"_blank\"><em>news reports<\/em><\/a>, Hill regularly arrived at his Northeast DC Post Office at 4 a.m. to practice playing his saxophone before sorting and delivering the mail.<\/p>\n<p>When off the clock, he dazzled audiences in jazz clubs around the city, playing alongside legends such as Dizzy Gillespie and Sonny Rollins.<\/p>\n<p>Hill also played with Miles Davis in the 1950s, taking the place of Davis\u2019s regular tenor saxophonist, John Coltrane.<\/p>\n<p>Davis was said to be so impressed by Hill that he asked him to join his tour. The letter carrier<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtoncitypaper.com\/arts\/music\/blog\/20855826\/buck-hill-obituary\" target=\"_blank\"><em>reportedly<\/em><\/a><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>turned down the offer because he wanted to keep his postal job \u2014 which he did until retiring in 1998.<\/p>\n<p>Hill recorded a dozen jazz albums from 1978-2006, performing well into his 80s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMusic is captivating [and] compelling,\u201d he once told The Washington Post. \u201cAfter a while, you just have to do it, and you can\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roger \u201cBuck\u201d Hill is shown playing his saxophone during his postal career. The inset photo shows Hill a few years before his death. Images: Washington City Paper, DC Jazz Fest USPS News Link &#8211; 4\/6\/17 &#8211; The recent death of a retired letter carrier and renowned jazz musician in the Washington, DC, area is sparking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-video-gallery","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18987,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18986\/revisions\/18987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}