Malcolm “Little Mack” Simmons was an American Chicago blues harmonica player, singer, and songwriter. He learned to play the harmonica alongside James Cotton during his youth and moved to St. Louis at age 18, where he made his stage debut performing with Robert Nighthawk. In 1954, Simmons relocated to Chicago and began recording in 1959, releasing singles on various labels including Chess Records. He built a reputation through a long residency at Cadillac Baby’s and later owned and operated the Zodiac Lounge in Chicago from the mid- to late 1960s, while also running his own recording ventures, PM Records and Simmons Records. After leaving the music industry for ministry work in the 1960s and spending decades largely out of the public eye, Simmons returned in the mid-1990s with Come Back To Me Baby (1994) and High & Lonesome (1995), both well received. Simmons died on October 24, 2000, in Chicago at the age of 67.
