Jasper Taylor was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 drummer.

Taylor performed in Wild West revues and minstrel show

Minstrel show

The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....

s in his teens, touring the American South and Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. He played in Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

 in 1913, on washboard

Washboard

A washboard is a tool designed for hand washing clothing. With mechanized cleaning of clothing becoming more common by the end of the 20th century, the washboard has become better known for its originally subsidiary use as a musical instrument....

, drums, wood block

Wood block

A woodblock is essentially a small piece of slit drum made from a single piece of wood and used as a percussion instrument. It is struck with a stick, making a characteristically percussive sound....

s, and xylophone

Xylophone

The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...

. As a xylophonist he collaborated with W.C. Handy, and later played with Jelly Roll Morton

Jelly Roll Morton

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....

.

In 1917 he moved to Chicago, where he was based out of for most of his career. He played in the 365th Infantry Band in France during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and played with Handy, Will Marion Cook

Will Marion Cook

William Mercer Cook , better known as Will Marion Cook, was an African American composer and violinist from the United States. Cook was a student of Antonín Dvořák and performed for King George V among others...

, the Chicago Novelty Orchestra, and Clarence Williams in the late 1910s and early 1920s. Later in the 1920s he worked with Dave Peyton

Dave Peyton

Dave Peyton was an Americansongwriter, pianist, and arranger.Peyton first began as a pianist in the trio of Wilbur Sweatman, where he played from 1908 to 1912. Following this Peyton led his own ensembles in various theaters in Chicago...

 and Fess Williams

Fess Williams

Stanley Williams was an American jazz musician.-Early life:...

.

Due to the downturn in opportunities to perform during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, he quit music in the 1930s and became a cobbler

Shoemaking

Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...

. In the 1940s he returned to active performance with Freddie Shayne and others; in the 1950s he played for several years with Natty Dominique

Natty Dominique

Anatie "Natty" Dominique was a jazz trumpeter born in New Orleans, Louisiana most notable for his long body of work with Johnny Dodds.-Biography:...

. Shortly before his death he led his own Creole Jazz Band.