Maud Hixson and Rick Carlson, Jazz at St. Barney’s, at St. Barnabus Lutheran Church, Plymouth (7 pm). There’s no finer pair in local music than vocalist Maud Hixson and pianist Rick Carlson. Their 2007 release, Love’s Refrain, captured the duo at their most intimate and songful. But intimate singing and beautiful melodies have been part of Maud’s repertoire since her school days in St. Louis Park, when she first fell in love with the songbooks of the 30s and 40s. Presented as the “Best New Voice” at the 2003 Twin Cities Winter Jazz Festival and headlining every major area club from the Dakota and Artists Quarter to Rossi’s, The Times, Dakota County Music Café and Hell’s Kitchen, Maud had her Manhattan cabaret debut last winter and performs with a long list of area musicians, including husband/piano master Rick Carlson, the Wolverines, and the swinging French 75 ensemble. Tickets are general admission at the door; information at (763) 553-1239. 

JazzMN Big Band, “Three Tenors” at Hopkins High School Performing Arts Center, Minnetonka (7:30 pm). Three of JazzMN’s biggest voices, Dave Karr, Pete Whitman and Dale Mendenhall, are turned loose for a night of Tenor Madness. Dave Karr, a native Brit, grew up in New York City, migrating west to the Twin Cities as a young musician where he has forged a 50+ year career as sideman and leader on tenor, bari, clarinet and flute. He leads his own quartet and Mulligan Stew and appears with Pete Whitman’s X-Tet and vocalists Christine Rosholt and Connie Evingson. Pete Whitman’s resume includes performances with Randy Brecker, Jack McDuff, and the Woody Herman Orchestra. Currently he heads the woodwind department at McNally Smith, leads his X-Tet and quartet, and performs with the JAZZAX Saxophone Quartet.  Another veteran musician, Dale Mendenhall has performed at every major venue in the area, including The Guthrie, Ordway, Children's Theatre, and The State and Orpheum Theatre, backing such artists as Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, and Tony Bennett. He was heard on the #1 pop hit "Funkytown," toured Japan with Ben Sidran, and has played with the Orlando-based Bill Allred Classic Jazz Orchestra. Locally he can be heard with the Minnesota Klezmer Band, TC Jammers, Reuben Ristrom and more.  Tonight these great tenors will be heard with the full band as well as in combo format. Visit www.jazzmn.org  

Roy Haynes and the Fountain of Youth, Artists Quarter, St. Paul (8 pm and 10:30 pm). This is the second night of Roy’s AQ visit, so if you go Friday night, you might open your options for Saturday. Or perhaps you can take in an early set elsewhere and come to St. Paul for the late show? Or vice versa? You can never see too much of the youngest 84-year-old in jazz, and he is back in town with his original FOY band of young lions, with Marcus Strickland on sax, Martin Bejerano on piano, and John Sullivan on bass. See more here. Make a reservation at 651-292-1359 or www.artistsquarter.com  

Dafnis Preito Sextet at Walker Art Center, McGuire Theater, Minneapolis (8 pm). Cuban drummer, composer and international jazz presence Dafnis Preito draws on the traditions of Afro Caribbean hand percussion and polyrhythmic post-bop. Studying in Cuba at School of Fine Arts in Santa Clara and later at Havana’s National School of Music, Preito moved to New York in 1999. His resume includes performing with the likes of Roy Hargrove, Eddie Palmieri, and Cuban legend Chucho Valdez, teaching at NYU, garnering two Latin Grammy in 2007, and the 2006 “Up and Coming Musician of the Year” award from the Jazz Journalists Association. His incendiary sextet includes Peter Apfelbaum (sax), Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Felipe Lamoglia (sax), Manuel Valera (piano), and Charles Flores (bass). Copresented by Northrop Jazz with Walker Art Center. See www.walkerarts.org.  

Vital Organ CD Release, Hell’s Kitchen, Minneapolis (8 pm-Midnight). The long-awaited debut recording of this vital trio is finally here! Jason Craft (organ), Zacc Harris (guitar) and Pete Hennig (drums) have garned a loyal following with their original compositions and classic standards, spanning jazz, funk and R&B. The 8 tracks of Exact Change include six new works from Harris and two arrangements of Miles Davis and Antonio Carlos Jobim tunes from Craft. Often featuring a vocalist, Vital Organ is joined on the CD and at Hell’s Kitchen by local favorite Katie Gearty. CDs will be available at the show. Visit www.hellskitcheninc.com  

Eisner’s Klezmorim, Café Maude, Minneapolis (9 pm-Midnight). Likely the most ethnically divergent experience of the night, this band features Patrick Harrison on accordion, Judith Eisner on fiddle, Rebecca Erikson on clarinet, Diane Benjamin on tismbl and Leo Bjorle on bass for an evening of East European folk music at this high-energy bistro in southwest Minneapolis.

Ingo Bethke CD Release, Late at the Dakota, Minneapolis (11:30 pm- 2 am). Wherever you go earlier, stop by the Dakota on your way home for a set or two from one of the most unique ensembles around, Ingo Bethke, celebrating their debut release. The band’s unique front-line of trumpet, sax and tuba is ripe for a wide range of sounds from straight-ahead swing to carefully arranged big-band-like tunes to explosive avant-garde explorations. Still relatively new on the Twin Cities jazz scene, Ingo Bethke has already wowed audiences at the Dakota and Clown Lounge. Released originally last spring, the eponymous recording features eight songs “ranging from zany circus-like improvisations to an earnest reinterpretation of a Jewish hymn.” Ingo Bethke features Shilad Sen (saxophone), Geoff Senn, (trumpet), Stefan Kac (tuba), Steve Gilbertson (piano), Matt Peterson (bass) and Nick Zielinski (drums). See www.dakotacooks.com  

There’s always more going on, of course, and Saturday means Jack Brass for brunch at Famous Dave’s in Uptown (10 am), Sophia Shorai at the Nicollet Island Inn in Minneapolis (6:30 pm), JoAnn Funk and Jeff Brueske at the St. Paul Hotel’s Lobby Bar (7 pm), the Benny Weinbeck Trio (with Gordy Johnson and Phil Hey) at D’Amico Kitchen in the Chambers Hotel in downtown Minneapolis (7:30 pm), and Irv Williams at Il Vesco Vino in St. Paul (7 pm).