Where Groove Lives and Breathes: Ella Forrest’s Soulful Path Through Jazz, Funk, and Disco

by Scott Roos

photos by Aaron Sinclair

There’s a certain kind of confidence that doesn’t announce itself loudly. It just grooves. That’s the space Ella Forrest occupies. It’s in that headspace somewhere between jazz-trained precision, disco-era joy, and the quiet assurance of someone who knows exactly why they’re doing what they’re doing.

Since debuting in 2022, the Regina-raised, and currently Ontario-based artist has been steadily carving out a lane that doesn’t always get a lot of airtime on the Prairies: soul-forward music with real musicianship, real arrangements, and a real sense of fun. Backed by her five-piece band in live settings with a larger crew on record, The Great Pines, Forrest’s music blends jazz, funk, disco, and R&B into something that feels both retro and refreshingly current. Think Corrine Bailey Rae’s intimacy, Silk Sonic’s polish, and Earth, Wind & Fire’s communal joy filtered through an undeniably Saskatchewan lens.

That blend didn’t happen by accident. As Forrest explains, “I think that I've always known (that I liked this kind of music). I guess I can go back to ‘I am a jazz musician’. I am trained in saxophone and I started (playing in) jazz band in elementary school. And actually it's where I met a lot of the members of my band. We met in elementary school jazz band. And so there's like a foundation of jazz and love of jazz within most of us in the band and that definitely helped kind of spur that side. But I also remember in elementary school listening to Bruno Mars 24 Karat Magic album and just thinking it was awesome. And then getting into old disco 70s records like Earth, Wind & Fire and you know newer R&B and I was just I always kind of gravitated toward those genres and just kind of morphed them all together when I was creating my own music.”

That early jazz foundation matters. Forrest may front a soul band now, but she came up through Regina’s school jazz system and later on in the University of Regina’s jazz band, playing saxophone and learning what it means to function inside an ensemble. She learned how to listen, how to sit in the pocket, how to serve the song. And while she’s currently studying optometry in Ontario - yes, really - the music has never stopped being central to her life. “I'm actually in school in Ontario right now for optometry. So I just had my first year in optometry school and I did it a psychology science degree in Regina.”

It’s an unusual dual path, but one that mirrors her approach to music: disciplined, intentional, and deeply human. Forrest is quick to deflate any notion of herself as a jazz purist. “Well, I was never one of the quote unquote ‘good jazz students’ who you know like the jazz like classics like some of the guys in my band are and you can ask them about any jazz musician and they'll be able to tell you. I have just liked playing in the jazz band and I like the feeling of playing a chord as a band and I remember loving that even in grade seven and thinking like this just feels really cool.”

What stuck wasn’t theory - it was feel. And more specifically, voices. “I always loved the jazz vocalists more like I always seemed to be Ella Fitzgerald and like Sarah Vaughan and and like that is what I really, I think I always was drawn more to like to vocals in general.” That influence is obvious onstage. Forrest sings with clarity and warmth, never overselling a lyric, letting phrasing and tone do the work. Her performances are confident without being flashy - stylish without being stiff. There’s a sense that the band is breathing together, locking into grooves that feel lived-in rather than rehearsed to death.

Forrest grew up in Regina, and that sense of place still radiates through her music and her live presence. “(The live music scene in Regina is) awesome. People are always like, ‘what's there to do in Regin’. Well, there's so much to do in Saskatchewan and Regina specifically from my experience, being a part of the music scene there. It's a very close knit community. It's like everyone is very supportive of each other. Everyone knows each other and shows up for each other.” That communal energy carries directly into her shows. The Great Pines don’t just back Forrest - they co-pilot the experience. Whether the band is stripped down to a tight core or expanded in the studio with horns and strings, the live sound prioritizes feel over flash: acrobatic bass lines, clean guitar work, grooves that invite movement, and arrangements that leave space for the audience to settle in, bob their heads along and simply enjoy the vibe.

Her sophomore EP, Retrograde, released in 2025, reflects a band growing more comfortable with who they are both sonically and visually. There’s a relaxed confidence to the material, echoed in the way Forrest and her band carry themselves onstage: retro silhouettes, understated cool, and a vibe that feels more like a great late-night dance floor than a traditional concert. As Forrest notes, “(With the recording of Retrograde) there was a kind of a time crunch… but it was perfect because it really spurred us to use our time wisely… it kind of just made us trust our instincts more with what we were creating.”

That trust shows up live in the way songs stretch and breathe. Disco-leaning tracks like “Waiting for Love” invite movement, while more emotionally dense pieces like “Sea” shift the room’s energy entirely—drawing listeners inward with texture, restraint, and mood. “Sea was very much an emotionally driven song for me,” Forrest explains.

At the core of The Great Pines’ sound is collaboration particularly with bassist Jakob Bjornson, whose jazz-funk instincts anchor the band. “Jake is very much a foundational jazz lover,” Forrest says. “He just can sit in the pocket so well… he's really good at coming up with more unique chordal progressions.” That pocket is what defines a Great Pines show. It’s what allows Forrest to float vocally, to play with phrasing, to let songs land naturally rather than forcing them forward. The overall effect is immersive rather than overwhelming.

“It’s just going to be… a musical experience,” Forrest says of her live shows. “Enjoyable and upbeat and fun. Our live shows are always a really fun time and I think that the audience always leaves feeling happy and energized.” That sense of joy is central to what she does. Soul, funk, and jazz-adjacent pop may not be what Saskatchewan is most famous for, but Forrest sees that changing. “I think more Indie groups are kind of adopting a mesh work of styles,” she says. “You can just see the interweaving of genres.”

Ella Forrest isn’t trying to reinvent the Prairie music scene. She’s simply helping to expand it, adding colour, groove, and intention with one tightly locked rhythm section, one velvet vocal line, and one joyful live performance at a time.