The Rialto Jazz for Kids with the Phoenix Jazz Quartet is a partnership program with middle schools in the Atlanta metro area under the auspices of the Rialto Center for the Performing and Visual Arts. Partnership middle schools in the past have included Sandtown, Taylor Road, Ridgeview, JC Young, Bear Creek, Lovejoy, Tucker, Sandy Springs, and Chamblee Middle Schools.  The program provides for the Phoenix Jazz Quartet to visit each school once a month to work with a select group of students who comprise the school's Jazz Combo.   The culmination is a program where each middle school jazz combo performs in the Rialto Theater.  

The program was started in 2003 by Leslie Gordon (Director of the Rialto Center) and Dr. Gordon Vernick.  Other performances include: Camp Good Friends, The Children’s Museum of Atlanta, The Atlanta Jazz Festival and High Museum.  The program is funded through grants from the Atlanta BCA, Fulton County Arts, Ludacris Foundation, Georgia Council for the Arts, and private donors.  

The members of the Phoenix Jazz Quartet include: Dr. Gordon Vernick, trumpet and director; Gary Motley, piano; Justin Varnes, drums; Robert Dickson, bass.  All of the members have a minimum of Master of Music and are among the most well respected musicians in the Atlanta area.  Dr. Vernick, jazz educator, musician, and author is the Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Georgia State ; Gary Motley is the Director of Jazz Studies at Emory University as well having released 5 CDs under his own name. Justin Varnes and Robert Dickson are music Instructors at Georgia State University.  It is very important for jazz educators to be outstanding performers and teachers; the members of the Phoenix Jazztet exemplify the ideal balance between the two. 

The Big Band meets every Saturday morning at GSU from 10 am to noon and is under the direction of Dr. Gordon Vernick and Mace Hibbard.