Ossia (Italian for "alternate musical passage") is an ensemble built around the possibilities that emerge when musicians step beyond the expected.

Following a warmly received debut in mid 2026, Jess Deacon (vocals), Jessica Murphy (keys and melodica), Robert J. M. Kingi (guitar and bass), and Cam Steel (drums and percussion) bring Ossia to the Wellington Jazz Festival with a growing sense of collective instinct, trust, and musical identity.

Drawing on jazz, soul, folk, groove, meditation, and classic songwriting traditions, Ossia takes familiar material apart and rebuilds it in the moment. Songs become starting points rather than fixed arrangements: stretched through improvisation, reshaped through spontaneous interplay, and opened to whatever the musicians hear in one another onstage.

At the heart of Ossia is musical conversation, and no two performances are intended to be the same.

Intimate, responsive, intuitive, Ossia invites audiences into the space where structure gives way to possibility — and where listening becomes as important as playing.

The Musicians

Jess Deacon — vocals

Jess Deacon is a cross-genre vocalist, songwriter, and composer whose work draws from jazz, folk, soul, classic rock, and choral music. An intuitive and emotionally direct performer, she brings curiosity, vulnerability, and a strong sense of storytelling to Ossia, using the voice as both a lyrical instrument and an active part of the ensemble’s improvisational conversation.

Jessica Murphy — keys, melodica, vocals

Jessica Murphy is a jazz and contemporary pianist and vocalist trained at the Christchurch School of Jazz. Her playing moves fluidly between harmonic richness, rhythmic momentum, and spacious restraint. Within Ossia, she brings colour, sensitivity, and melodic imagination through piano, keys, and melodica.

Robert J. M. Kingi — guitar, bass

Based in Taitoko Levin, Robert J. M. Kingi is a guitarist and bassist whose musical language spans blues, jazz, gospel, country, and soul. A Whitireia music graduate of Māori and American heritage, Robert combines technical precision with an instinctive feel for groove, texture, and improvisation, creating lines that can anchor a song or lead it somewhere entirely unexpected.

Cam Steel — drums, percussion

Cam Steel is a versatile drummer and percussionist known for his deep groove, dynamic sensitivity, and highly collaborative approach. A graduate of the Whitireia School of Music, he has performed across jazz, soul, folk, funk, and experimental settings. In Ossia, Cam treats rhythm as both foundation and conversation, shaping performances through responsiveness, restraint, energy, and spontaneous invention.