Voorhees drummers perform at Democratic convention

PHILADELPHIA - Chad Moore got the call one week ago: Can your percussion group learn a three-and-a-half minute song from scratch and perform it live in front of thousands of people at the Democratic National Convention and millions watching on television?

And can you do it in six days?

“It was a scramble,” laughed Chad Moore, artistic director of United Percussion, an ensemble based in Voorhees. “It doesn’t usually go together like this so you kind of got your fingers crossed. There’s not just a lot of time.”

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A group of 15 United Percussion drummers performed live on the second night of the Democratic National Convention, backing up Grammy-nominated singer Andra Day in a performance of her song, “Rise Up.”

Normally, a four-minute performance would take nearly a month of preparation. The first time Day rehearsed with the drummers came just a few hours before the cameras were on them. The days before were packed with transcribing, practicing, recording and nailing down the visual elements that come with a performance.

The students, between ages 17 and 22, traveled from as far away as upstate New York.

“Once we got the charts, I’m emailing our members saying, ‘Hey, I need people up here tomorrow. And by the way, you have to memorize it cold,’” Moore said. “But the kids came in ready to that.”

The moment wasn’t lost on the students, Moore said. Many didn’t want to drive home after they arrived back at Moore’s Voorhees home, still “buzzing” with adrenaline from the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“This is not a typical performance for us. Typically we perform in a competition format, not with a Grammy-nominated artist in front of all those cameras and all those people on a national stage,” Moore said. “I’ve spent all day telling people who we saw, who we worked with, who we spoke to and all the energy that’s there you just don’t see on TV.”

“For us, these memories are going to last forever,” he said.

The performance followed remarks by the “Mothers of the Movement,” women whose children were killed by gun violence. Moore tries to imbue every number with a story or message, anything from civil rights to Native American genocides. The Mothers’ calls for gun control measures and a meeting of the minds between police and the urban communities they patrol fit in perfectly with United’s “mission,” Moore said.

“With all those messages that are out there from the other side of the spectrum, the way we see it is: There are people on the other end of those comments. United is also made up of people,” Moore said. “We don’t get political with them, but we do bring a message through the art of unity and diversity, and all those things we just naturally believe in.”

When asked if the group would perform had the Republican National Convention made the call, Moore demurred.

“I’ll answer it this way,” Moore said. “We only accept and pursue performance that are consistent with our mission.”

Mike Davis: 732-643-4223; mdavis@gannettnj.com