His Accompanists

His Accompanists

Mridangam & Ghatam Artistes who had performed with him

Many stalwarts and later on, even upcoming artistes had accompanied Chitti Babu in his concerts.

To name just a few would be a disservice to many more, but special mention must be made of a few who were very close to Chitti Babu professionally and personally as well.

The Mridangam artistes, who had most often played for Chitti Babu were Shri Guruvayur Dorai, Shri V. Kamalakar Rao, Shri. Thanjavur Upendran, and later on Late Shri. K. Veerabhadra Rao, all of whom enjoyed a great personal friendship with Chitti Babu.

Chitti Babu also cherished the fact that the legendary Shri. Palghat Mani Iyer had performed many times with him, when he was an upcoming artiste, and had even played with him for an LP record in the early 70s.

Many other great Mridangists include Late Shri. Vellore Ramabhadran, Shri. TV Gopalakrishnan, Shri. Umayalapuram Sivaraman, Shri. Shri. Mannargudi Easwaran, Shri. Erode Gururajan, Shri. Madhirimangalam Swaminathan, Shri. Shanmuganandam, Shri. Madipakkam Suresh, Shri. Dandamudi Rama Mohana Rao, etc.

Ghatam Artistes who performed with him, include Shri. Nemani Somayajulu, Shri. EM Subramanian, Adambakkam Shankar,

Some stalwart Ghatam artistes (now deceased) who had also performed with him include Late Shri. Alangudi Ramachandran, Late Shri. KS Manjunath, Late Shri. Palaghat Sundaram, Late Shri. KM Vaidyanathan, Late Shri. TV Vasan, Late Shri. Gurumurthy, Late Shri. Umayalapuram Narayanaswamy, to name a few.

Gurvayur Dorai, was the Mridangist who played for Chitti Babu's 1st concert in the early 50s and they were a great combination for so many years. He was someone whom Chitti Babu always referred to a "friend, philosopher and guide" as they shared a cherished relationship for 40+ years.

Kamalakar Rao - disciple of the lengendary Palghat Mani Iyer - was not only a Mridangist who had accompanied Chitti Babu in many concerts in India and abroad (USA in 1976; Singapore/Malaysia in 1979), but also a close friend of Chitti Babu and family. Chitti Babu respected Kamalakar Rao's skills as a Mridangist, and also his views as a friend and held in high esteem, all his life.