Julie Dexter incorporates a few elements of old-school R&B, but she’s not interested in that genre’s raw-voiced, gospel-rooted emotion. A British-born daughter of Jamaican parents, Dexter prefers a more polished and restrained approach. Dexter has been conveying her thoughts using ’70s balladry, lush jazz crooning, and chill-out-lounge atmospherics since the late ’90s. Sometimes she does so using reggae-inflected rhythms and more recently, bossa nova. While her supporters hail her for her sophisticated tastes and classical training, it’s her strength at covering greats like Antonio Carlos Jobim that helps her stand out from the urban coffeehouse crowd.

DEXTER PERFORMS AT NOON AT THE WILSON PLAZA (RONALD REAGAN BUILDING), 1300 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. NW. FREE. (202) 727-0872.