The five-tool player is usually applied to a baseball player who can hit, hit for power, run, field, and throw, but National Public Radio has applied the term to the legendary entertainer Nat King Cole. Mary McCann wrote that Cole was originator of the guitar/bass/piano trio format, an influential pianist, a barrier-breaker between jazz and popular music, and a multimedia superstar. Songs such as “Straighten Up and Fly Right”, “Nature Boy”, “Get Your Kicks on Route 66,” “Unforgettable” and “The Christmas Song” are the tip-top of a musical legacy we can still enjoy today on CDs, albums, and YouTube. Cole has also been called the Jackie Robinson of television. He has been gone over 50 years, but his music and other accomplishments can still entertain and inspire us today.

Featuring Nick Vega, curator of This is Nat King Cole, a Grammy Museum Exhibition