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SATURDAY

The speedy sound of soca may be the main music of choice at many of this weekend’s Caribbean Carnival– related events, but if your tastes run toward old-school Jamaican styles, you’re in luck. Kingston-born Alton Ellis was the most prominent vocalist involved with the mid-’60s genre known as rocksteady. Less frenetic than ska, more R&B-rooted than reggae, this approach allowed soulful singers to stretch words like rubber bands. Skilled craftsman Ellis penned and crooned such melancholy originals as “All My Tears (Come Rolling)” and “Wide World,” and added his own island-rooted stamp to “Duke of Earl,” “La La Means I Love You,” and “It’s Your Thing.” Now 60-something, Ellis received raves when he sang a lengthy set over a DJ spinning his records at an underpublicized local party this April. Ellis plays at 3 p.m. at the Settings Nightclub, 2063 University Blvd., Hyattsville. $25. (301) 439-7015.