#3 Moeller vs. Open/Close: The Shuffle and the 3 Stroke Ruff

Alan Dawson was born in Marietta, Pennsylvania, United States, and raised in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he played with the Army Dance Band while stationed at Fort Dix from 1951 to 1953. During his tenure, Alan explored the post-bop era by performing with pianist Sabby Lewis. After being discharged from the Army, Dawson toured Europe with Lionel Hampton
In early 1960, he was based in Boston, for a regular engagement with John Neves, bass, and Leroy Flander, piano
Dawson was an early teacher of drummers Tony Williams and Joseph Smyth, known for his work with the Sawyer Brown country music group. Other students included Terri Lyne Carrington, Julian Vaughn, Vinnie Colaiuta, Steve Smith, Kenwood Dennard, Gerry Hemingway, Jeff Sipe, Billy Kilson, and many others. Dawson began teaching at Berklee College of Music in 1957. He suffered a ruptured disc in 1975 which led to him halting his touring schedule, to leave Berklee and limit his teaching to his home in Lexington, Massachusetts
Dawson's teaching style emphasized the music as a whole rather than concentrating on percussion alone. He stressed the importance of learning the melody and structure of the tune to better fulfill the role of accompaniment. For this purpose, he had students play over standards while also singing the melody out loud. He constantly strived for balance between musical ideas and strict technique. He was big on rudiments and wrote extensive exercises intended to be practiced with brushes. He believed using brushes with his "Rudimental Ritual" would reduce stick rebound, allowing the sense of "picking up" the sticks
While teaching, Dawson also maintained a prolific performing and recording career. Dawson was the house drummer for Lennie's on the Turnpike in Peabody, Massachusetts, from 1963 through 1970. This gig allowed him to perform with a diverse group of jazz artists. Throughout the 1960s, Dawson recorded almost exclusively with saxophonist Booker Ervin on Prestige Records. In 1968, Dawson replaced Joe Morello in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and continued until 1972. His performance credits also included stints with Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Jaki Byard, Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon, Lee Konitz, Quincy Jones, Charles Mingus, Tal Farlow
Alan Dawson died of leukemia on February 23, 1996

In the 21st century there are four principal rudimental drumming cultures: Swiss Basler Trommeln, Scottish pipe drumming, Anglo-American ancient drumming, and American modern drumming (or DCI hybrid drumming). Other organized rudimental systems include the French, Dutch, German (Prussian), Swedish, Trommeslått, Bavarian, Austro-Hungarian, Italian, Belgian, Mexican, Russian, Swiss Ordonnanz Trommel (non-Basel, poorly understood outside of Switzerland) systems, which are still studied and performed on a small scale in their home countries. There is also a distinct historic Spanish rudimental culture, though this system is no longer widely used, as well as a similarly defunct Sicilian system

Recently, the International Association of Traditional Drummers (IATD) has been working to once again promote the 26 NARD rudiments of 1933 (1870 Strube list of 25 plus 1). One of the chief issues the IATD has with the PAS 40 is the "Swiss influence," though only eight of the extra 14 rudiments (that do not appear in the Standard 26) are foreign or not found in American military manuals prior to Strube. Only two of those eight non-traditional rudiments can be traced to a Swiss origin

There is a movement in the German-speaking areas of Europe, led by Claus Hessler and Percussion Creativ, to revise rudimental practices and combine the French and Basel systems with some of the modern American rudiments into a single Rudimental Codex of 42 rudiments. The Rudimental Codex has been submitted to UNESCO as an intangible World Heritage Site

Rudiments according to the Percussive Arts Society. There are more than 850 rudiments worldwide, but these 40 are the current American standards, referred to as “international” because they mix rudiments traditionally used in Anglo-American drumming with several drawn from the Swiss Basel drumming tradition. They were compiled by a committee led by Jay Wanamaker in 1984 that also happened to include William F. Ludwig Jr., son of the founder of NARD in 1933. In contrast, there are 26 rudiments between the NARD 13 Essential and 13 Rudiments to Complete sheets, 46 rudiments on the Scottish Drumming Rudiments sheet,[98] and 42 rudiments on the French/Swiss Rudimental Codex sheet