Released in 1989 by the noted audiophile label Chesky Records, Portraits is a testament to the prodigious talent of the legendary trumpeter, flugelhornist, and jazz educator Clark Terry. The first of four albums for the Chesky label, Portraits was recorded when the St. Louis-born hornblower, then 68 years old, was a much-venerated jazz elder. By then, he had 35 albums under his belt and boasted a resume that included stellar collaborations with Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Quincy Jones, and Dizzy Gillespie. For Portraits, produced by David Chesky, Terry assembled a quartet comprising pianist Don Friedman, bassist Victor Gaskin, and drummer Lewis Nash. With Terry alternating between flugelhorn and muted trumpet while also showing off his chops as an occasional vocalist, the quartet breezes through a blend of familiar jazz standards, like 'Pennies From Heaven,' and Terry's hard-driving original tune, 'Finger Filibuster,' where he shows off his athletic scat singing. Other highlights include the Louis Armstrong favorite 'When It's Sleepy Time Down South' and 'Sugar Blues,' a nostalgic nod to New Orleans jazz. The album is reissued on SACD Hybrid Stereo in 2025.

Recorded on September 1, 1957 at Rudy Van Gelder's home studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, and released in March 1958, "Sonny's Crib" is a jazz album released by Sonny Clark when he was just 25 years old. He had moved from Pittsburgh to the West Coast and then New York in the early to mid-1950s and he immersed himself in bebop and when he'll give his personal touch to the sounds emerging from the birthplace of hard bop. Albums from this period often featured "dream teams" of musicians and "Sonny's Crib" is a prime example. It's his second album as a leader (after "Dial "S" for Sonny") and the band it's notable because it features a fantastic lineup musicians as Sonny Clark himself, Donald Byrd, Curtis Fuller, Paul Chambers, Art Taylor and John Coltrane (in his pre-Blue Train period which was recorded just a few weeks later in 1957). The performance it's phenomenal, a true result of hard bop with some blues and modal elements: on "Sonny's Crib" Sonny Clark is real at the heart of the action. A recording that open the door to hard bop a must-have in the ideal jazz discography that show Clark become one of the best jazz piano talents of that period.