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Maurice Robertson loves jazz. Just as much, he loves “getting dead up on folk.” By this, he means rushing the stage where the musicians are playing and snapping off photos of them, as close as he can get. Reminiscing about some of his conquests, he sounds like a naughty little boy.

“In the early ’80s I saw Miles Davis at Avery Fisher Hall. I had orchestra seats but I walked up to the front. Nobody bothered me,” the 62-year-old Hartford resident said. “I saw Dizzy Gillespie in 1989 at Tanglewood. I ran down the aisle, crouched and shot the photo. I was like an assassin.”

Sixty-one of Robertson’s photos are on exhibit now at Hartford Public Library. They represent 30 years of photography, in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Montreal and the Netherlands. All types of musicians show up in Robertson’s work, but he has a special fondness for pianists and their dynamic hands, as well as those “left of center … who play stuff that I don’t know what they’re doing, maybe not easy to follow.”

Hugh Masekela at Infinity Hall Hartford, Paquito de Riverta at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center, Natalie Cole at Tanglewood, Sun Ra at Sweet Basil in Greenwich Village, Art Blakey at the Iron Horse and Dave Brubeck in Hartford are some of the superstars of his collection. Each photo is not just a photo to Robertson, but a cherished memory. “These moments are precious,” he said.

For another look at jazz in art, the Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery at 70 Audubon St. in New Haven presents “Jazz: An Exhibition of Poetry, Prints, and Photography” from Jan. 21, when it opens with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m., until March 4. Artists are Nan Adams, Antoinette Brim, Violet Harlow, Ngoma Hill, Shaunda Holloway, Maura Galante, Tenjin Falase Ikeda, Lori Miller, Frederick-Douglas Knowles II, Steve Prince and Eric Sermabekian. newhavenart.org.

“EXPRESSIONS IN SOUND AND MOTION: MAURICE ROBERTSON” is at ArtWalk at Hartford Public Library, 500 Main St. in Hartford, from Jan. 22, when it opens with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m., until March 4. artwalk.hplct.org/.