Russell Webster (1928 – 2007)
With the passing of his widow, Lexie Webster, this past June, now would be an appropriate time to remember “the Whistling Postman,” Russell Webster. He was born in Indianapolis in 1928, the last of 12 children. His mother, a church organist, insisted that all of them learn to play the piano and at least one other instrument. So, he started classical training in woodwinds at Crispus Attucks High School along with his lifelong friend, Alonzo “Pookie” Johnson. In addition to their school lessons, the pair were going to the jazz clubs on Indiana Avenue to hear local and national musicians. He also formed a band that would play on the bus going to and from school. He furthered his classical training at the Arthur Jordan School of Music and a summer at the Julliard Conservatory in New York City.
Joining the US Army during his senior year of high school, he served in the 384th Regiment Army Band playing saxophone in USO shows with national stars. In 1952, following his military service, he became a mailman, making his rounds during the day and performing his original music at Indiana Avenue clubs at night, alongside performers such as Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Coe, and J.J. Johnson. (Johnson was featured in our January 2025 newsletter and both he and Coe are buried at Crown Hill.) He became known as the “Whistling Postman.” He said that he “used to practice for sax by whistling bird songs and jazz songs on my route,” sometimes followed by neighborhood children. He also whistled at home while he was composing both jazz and classical music.
In 1983, he began a project with the UK’s Jazzman label to self-produce an album that became Uncle Funkenstein’s Together Again. He used local musicians, including Pookie Johnson, and the album is dedicated to “Naptown: The City of Jazz and the Capital of American Music.” One thousand copies of the vinyl album were pressed and despite, or perhaps because of, that limited pressing, it has been called a “Holy Grail of Jazz.” Original copies of the vinyl album have sold for over $4,000, and in 2008 it was reissued on CD.
In the 1990s, Webster continued to perform locally with his own quartet and with the Jimmy Coe Big Band. A Russell Webster Day was proclaimed by the city in 1990, and he was inducted into the Indianapolis Jazz Foundation Hall of Fame in 1998. He and Pookie Johnson volunteered to teach music at the Inner-City Music School in a local church, and a benefit concert was held in 2005 to honor him and raise funds for the school.
