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"The Wailin' Mailman." Roger "Buck" Hill laughs now when he hears that name. It recalls 70 years of jazz and wild shows, but also 40 years of putting his family first by working at the post office.

"There was so much excitement," Buck says of the 1950s, the peak of jazz's popularity in Washington, D.C. "There used to be hollering and screaming, which has disappeared. It was crazy times."

Born in 1927, Buck is a D.C. legend on the alto, tenor and soprano saxophones and clarinet, having shared the stage with Charlie Byrd, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. But Buck is a local guy. He never moved to New York like so many of his contemporaries. He already had a family by the late 1940s, and leaving wasn't an option.

Some asked Buck why a top player worked at the post office. His reply: "I gotta eat." Jazz never paid well, even at its peak, and the jazz scene's days were numbered.

"In the ‘60s, things fell off, fell off completely. I kept working around, but it wasn't like U Street," Buck says of D.C.'s scene, pushed out by riots, a decaying inner city and the rise of rock music.

"I hated that," he says of rock's effect on his scene. "I guess it was The Beatles. After that, there was no going back."

Today Buck shares a tidy Greenbelt apartment with his wife Helen, his saxophones and two cats. He is soft-spoken and modest, even though he entered the Washington Area Music Association's Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Smithsonian Jazz Café hosted his 80th birthday. To him, gigs were "jobs." The difference between days at the office and nights of jazz was that he liked music more than mail.

"Playing and working, it was rough. You'd go home, get rest then go out [and play]," Buck says.

He still gigs at the Montpelier Arts Center in Laurel. Director Richard Zandler dubs Buck "the dean of Montpelier jazz," a moniker eliciting more chuckles from Buck. In 2000 Buck released "Uh Huh! Buck Hill Live at the Montpelier," now a sold out album.

Zandler recalls Buck walking into Montpelier in 1984 and asking if he could rent the hall for a show.

"I said, ‘OK, that sounds interesting. Maybe you could submit a recording,'" Zandler says. "Being from Philadelphia, I didn't know who Buck was. He's one of the great Washington players who played with everybody."

Buck helped school young players, most notably taking drummer Billy Hart on his first gig. Later Hart returned the favor, landing Buck his first recording on SteepleChase Records in 1978. But Buck usually led by example.

"Buck isn't an overt leader … he's more of a standard setter," says John Ozment, who has played piano with Buck's quartets for nearly 20 years.

A 2008 recording on a MySpace tribute page and songs on his 2006 record "Relax" reveal he still has the same talent of years past. Buck isn't so sure.

"I'm thinking … I'm thinking about retiring," he says, unprompted.

There are a few reasons for this admission. He prefers the soprano sax to the tenor. "It's not as heavy." He advises youngsters receive an education before pursuing jazz. It's important to have something to fall back on. "It's a rough business." Most of all, there is now loneliness to the music.

"A lot of the guys I played with are dead," he says. "I don't get sad when playing music, but it makes the music sad."

Buck was hesitant to play his soprano on a muggy June afternoon. He didn't enjoy getting his picture taken, either. But after the interview was over and his apartment door closed, a sweet sax lick could be heard lofting throughout the building. The mailman still wails.

E-mail John Burgess Everett at jeverett@gazette.net.

Scheduled Buck Hill performances

-8 p.m. July 18 at New Deal Cafe

-8 p.m. Sept. 25 at Montpelier Arts Center