If you’re not doing anything Friday night, come on over to pianist Erwin Helfer’s birthday party.

Helfer is celebrating b-day No. 76 on Jan. 20, and he’s spending his big night performing a concert benefitting Lincoln Park Village, a nonprofit organization helping people age 50-plus continue to live in their homes. The master boogie-woogie and blues man is sure to raise the rafters at the Boogie Blues Birthday Bash Benefit, being held 8 to 10 p.m., Jan. 20, at the Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church, 600 W. Fullerton Parkway.

“I’ll be performing boogie blues and standards,” said Helfer, an honorary Lincoln Park Village member who’ll entertain that evening with “sassy blues” singer Katherine Davis and “soulful” sax man John Brumbach.

Helfer originally hails from nearby to my old neck of the woods, South Shore. Seems his family lived in the South Side neighborhood until he was in seventh grade, when they packed up and moved to Glencoe. But once he got to high school, Helfer would head back to the bright lights of the city, seeking out its jazz musicians. It was during that time also that he met a pianist who would change his life.

“He had loads of blues and piano boogie records and early New Orleans jazz,” recalled Helfer, who was influenced by the “deep and sad from-the-heart blues” of Jimmy Yancey and “funky rhythms” of Otis Spann, both bluesmen.

“It just flipped me out. I made it a point to go to the South and West sides and find anybody I could,” said Helfer, who has opened shows for greats such as Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie. “With recordings and just the players, I learned the music. Most of them didn’t read, so there was no verbal instruction. But they sure could play.”

It has been about a dozen years now since I first met Helfer at the home he’s lived in for the last 43 years, on the 2200 block of North Magnolia Street, a.k.a. Erwin Helfer Way. It’s there the boogie-woogie man resides with his dog, Bernie, a mutt, and two doves, Pretty Bird I and II.

Yet tickling the ivories has taken him from Lincoln Park to stages and jazz fests all around the world, including a solo performance at the Berlin Jazz Festival, among many others. And the self-taught piano man has been raved about in publications including Downbeat Magazine and The Wall Street Journal.

And even though he turns 76 tomorrow, it appears Helfer’s not slowing down. In fact Helfer — also a piano teacher whose pupils range from 7 to 70 years old — is working on a CD set for summer release. And he continues to play clubs — he’ll be at Katerina’s, 1920 W. Irving Park Road, on Jan. 25.

But on Jan. 20, there’s no doubt that Helfer will jazz up the Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church, a Romanesque, circa-1888, Michigan sandstone building with red oak pews, beautiful stained-glass, and a historic Johnson & Son tracker organ. So come on over and check out the boogie-woogie piano guy from Magnolia Street.

“This is going to be a real jazz fest,” said Jane Curry, an Lincoln Park Village board member. “And, yes, we will be singing a rousing ‘Happy Birthday’ — with cake — to Erwin during the two-hour concert.”

Donations are $10, and proceeds benefit Lincoln Park Village and the musicians. For reservations go to celebrate@lincolnparkvillage.org or call (773) 248-8700.

Happy birthday also… to these longtime Skyliners: Dot and Walter Paas, turning 80-something on Jan. 14 and 15 respectively, and Jack Telander, celebrating No. 93 on Jan. 17. Telander Construction remodeled, reconstructed, 1300 N. Lake Shore Drive and built 400 E. Ohio St. among many others, and he still goes into his office every day!