CLEVELAND, Ohio - Grammy winner Robert Glasper doesn't have to look too hard to see the continuing influence of Smokey Robinson on today's music.
"My son Riley is 6 years old,'' said Glasper, who took home the best R&B Grammy at the 55th installment of the awards show in 2013 for his 2012 album "Black Radio'' and a best traditional R&B performance this year for "Jesus Children,'' with Lalah Hathaway and Malcolm Jamal-Warner.
"When he's coloring, he sings the intro to 'Tears of a Clown,''' Glasper, whose Robert Glasper Experiment will be one of the featured acts at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annual Music Masters concert honoring Robinson.
"The song keeps making me smile, and he's been singing that song for a whole year,'' said Glasper, calling from his New York City home.
"Riley loves that 'Motown 25: Yesterday, Today and Forever' video, too,'' said Glasper, who was one of the performers here in the 2013 Tri-C JazzFest. "He watches that all the time, and he got a chance to see Smokey on there.''
Really, this is a case of like father, like son.
"Smokey helped the blueprint for so much of black music, and so many of my favorite artists have recorded Smokey Robinson songs,'' Glasper said.
"And it doesn't stop at R&B,'' Glasper said. "Ask any gospel or rock or classical musician - he's just one of those talents that go across the board with his songwriting style. There's a little Smokey in most things I do, even if I don't know it.''
Glasper can relate to that diversity. His own music cuts a wide swath through the boundaries of genre. He's primarily known for his composing work as a jazz pianist, but he's been equally adept in pop, hip-hop and soul.
"There are very few people like Smokey who write for other people and still sing their face off and produce and do all of these things,'' Glasper said. "I don't do all that, but I do try to take a lesson from it and try to expand my artist vocabulary so I'm not just dealing with one flavor all the time.''
He's not kidding. His latest album, "Covered,'' features re-imagined tracks by everybody from Kendrick Lamar to Joni Mitchell to Quincy Jones, with some jazz standards thrown in for good measure.
With that in mind, Robinson fans might be on the lookout for some doctoring on their favorite Robinson tunes with Glasper and his group onstage.
"I take my hat off to the people at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who are putting this on,'' Glasper said. "They could have easily stuck with the greats from Smokey's time period, buy they thought outside the box.
"I think we're the last people we would ask for,'' he said. "They are actually [in favor] of me arranging and rearranging some of the songs.''
The Robert Glasper Experiment will do a few of those re-imagined tunes on its own, then serve as the backing band to contemporary R&B vocalists Bilal and Avant, and Eric Roberson, who has been described as "the king of indie soul.''
But not, sadly, for 6-year-old Riley Glasper.
"I don't think he's going to be able to go,'' said his dad, who has to sail to London on Oct. 29 as part of his label's "Gregory Porter & Blue Note Jazz at Sea Cruise,'' and will fly into Cleveland from London the day before the concert.
But there's every chance he'll be singing along to Smokey from home.