During the 1950s Charles White began a notably fertile period as an artist whose work appeared on records of the Vanguard label. Vanguard was a particularly innovative record label, founded in 1949 by Seymour Solomon and his younger brother Maynard Solomon in New York City. The label grew to become one of America's leading independent labels. Charles White supplied drawings and illustrations for a number of Vanguard records, for the most part with 10 inch sleeves. Many of these were jazz recordings, but in one or two instances his illustrations were used for other types of recordings. 

In 1955, Charles White provided an illustration for the cover of another eponymously titled release by the Sir Charles Thompson Trio. The record was released on the Vanguard label as part of its ‎Vanguard Jazz Showcase – VRS-8018. Again, it was a 10" mono recording. Sir Charles Thompson (1918 – 2016) was an American swing and bebop pianist, organist, composer, and arranger. White’s drawing for this album was of a pair of hands, touching, with sensitivity and purpose, the keys of a piano. The hands took up pretty much the whole of the record cover and as such, accentuated an understanding that a pianist’s skills lay for the most part in her or his hands and fingers. This was an exquisite drawing which was somehow able to communicate a sense that a passage was being played which required attention, focus and care. There was an otherworldly dimension to the image, as it appeared as if the pianist (whose disembodied hands played with such delicacy and intent) was submerged in water, as was the piano being played. It was thus possible to read White’s illustrations such as this as distinctly interpretive.  

The notes on the back of the sleeve included "The drawing on the cover is by the distinguished artist Charles White, winner of several national awards, whose work is represented in the Whitney Museum in New York, Library of Congress, and other famous collections."