At a party last Sunday at the Dakota, for which club owner Lowell Pickett flew in New Orleans clarinetist Evan Christopher (who gave one of the best live performances I have ever heard), we got a sneak peek of the plans for the club’s 25th anniversary year.

It’s hard to believe the Dakota will turn 25 in 2010. For those new to the Twin Cities, it hasn’t always been on Tenth and Nicollet in downtown Minneapolis. It opened in 1985 at Bandana Square in St. Paul, which started out as a shopping center and is now an office center. The club moved to Minneapolis in October 2003, barely yesterday for regulars who still refer to the “old Dakota” and the “new Dakota.”

What can we look forward to in 2010? Nothing in jazz is ever cast in stone, but here’s a short list of booked and in-the-works artists: Ahmad Jamal, Madeleine Peyroux, Anoushka Shankar (Ravi’s daughter; Nora Jones’ half-sister), Anat Cohen, Benny Green, Mark O’Connor, Bob James and Keiko Matsui; probably Roy Hargrove, Ravi Coltrane, Larry Coryell, Arturo Sandoval, and Stacey Kent; and maybe (fingers crossed) McCoy Tyner.

Tyner was the first jazz superstar to play the “old Dakota” back in 1988, and his appearance threw the doors wide open to what became a parade of jazz greats. Chick Corea played here in September with Stanley Clarke and Lenny White. The Dave Brubeck Quartet will perform Monday through Wednesday. On Nov. 10, you can hear Herb Alpert.

Today the Dakota is known as one of the best jazz clubs in America; DownBeat magazine named it one of the 100 best in the world.

If you want to hear a big national/international act, it will cost you, but on many nights you can wander in and hear amazing music for $5 or $10. The late-night series on Fridays and Saturdays is full of surprises; on Nov. 7, the Suicide Commandos will reconvene for an acoustic show. To jazz lovers (and blues lovers; the club is booking more blues these days), the online calendar is a candy store. Sign up for the email list to stay informed.

Britt Robson wrote a terrific article about the Dakota for the February 2008 issue of the Rake (which turned out to be its second-to-last print issue). You can read it online.

This week’s jazz picks should lead with Brubeck, but only a very few tickets were left across all five shows the last time I checked, and those are probably gone by now. Here’s what else you can do.

Friday: Fantastic Merlins CD Release. Tenor saxophonist Nathan Hanson, bassist Brian Roessler and drummer Pete Hennig have a sound all their own. They call it “a mysterious blend of jazz and chamber music” that brings together “the visceral power of Charles Mingus and the sparse textures of Steve Reich.” Their latest CD, “A Handful of Earth,” prominently features Jacqueline Ultan on cello. She’s no longer with the group, but if you’re wondering how this will affect Friday’s show, don’t sweat it. This is jazz, and jazz is about improvisation, and the Merlins are bringing in Desdemona and Carnage of Ill Chemistry to round things out with spoken word, hip-hop, and beat box. Percussionist Tim O’Keefe, heard on track 2 of the CD (“Purple Orange”), will also be on hand. Hear selections from “A Handful of Earth” here. 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, Black Dog in St. Paul’s Lowertown. No cover; donations accepted.

Saturday: Atlantis Quartet Plays Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters. Will the Atlantis Quartet Halloween show at the Dakota become a regular thing? Here’s hoping. Last year, they played John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” in its entirety and then returned for a second set dressed like characters from “The Big Lebowski.” This year, they’re taking on Herbie Hancock’s funk/fusion classic “Head Hunters.” No word on costumes. Atlantis is Brandon Wozniak on saxophone, Zacc Harris on guitar, Chris Bates on bass and Pete Hennig (also of the Merlins; see above) on drums. With special guest Brian Ziemniak on keys. Should be fun. 11 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, Dakota ($5).

Sunday: Jazz and Paris: A Lecture with Music. Journalist and jazz critic Christian Gauffre is assistant editor-in-chief of Jazz Magazine (France) and author of biographies of Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and other jazz greats (in French). Sponsored by Alliance Française, he will speak (in English) about the love affair between jazz and Paris, from its origins in the 1920s to the 1960s. Many African-American jazz musicians traveled to France and were treated as heroes, in sharp contrast to the racism and segregation they faced here; Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet and Coleman Hawkins all spent time in France, and we’ll probably hear music from them, among others. 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, MCAD Auditorium, Minneapolis College of Art and Design ($8/$5 Alliance Française members).

Pamela Espeland keeps a Twin Cities live jazz calendar and blogs about jazz at Bebopified. She tweets about jazz on Twitter.