Malcolm "Little Mack" Simmons (January 25, 1933 – October 24, 2000) was an American Chicago blues harmonica player, singer, and songwriter.
Simmons was born in Twist, Arkansas. In his youth he was a boyhood friend of James Cotton, who apprenticed under blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson II. The boys often traded books for harmonicas, playing hooky so Cotton could teach Simmons the harmonica techniques he was picking up from the master. Simmons later gave up school completely, working farm jobs and on the railroad, until, at the age of 18, he moved to St. Louis. It was in St. Louis that Simmons met up with Robert Nighthawk, debuting on Nighthawk's stage.
Simmons broke into the Chicago scene in 1954, landing a five-year gig at Cadillac Baby's. Backed by a full band, he was a regular at joints like Pepper's Lounge and Sylvio's. Simmons began his recording career in 1959, cutting tracks for Cadillac Baby, Chess Records, Palos, Bea & Baby and New Breed labels often simply billed as Little Mack (or Mac). Simmons was making tracks in more than the literal sense though. By the late 1960s, he had created a fusion of gospel, funk, country and western, soul and rock, mixed with a heavy dose of his signature blues style.
But as time rolled on the taste of the black public were no longer in the blues and Little Mack's attempts to become a Soul musician were cut short. He settled for a moment on the Mexican border, lived on drug trafficking and with the money thus earned became the manager of the Chess owned Club Zodiac in Chicago as well as owning a recording studio where he recorded blues, gospel and soul on his own labels, PM Records and Simmons Records. Among his artists were Otis Clay and Sunnyland Slim. He was rarely heard of until he toured France during which he recorded his first album in 1975 ( Blue lights (Black & Blue ) with a few self-productions and above all an activity as a studio harmonica player. His version of ‘Rainy Night In Georgia’, was a local hit.
The following decade saw him embark on a religious "career". He becomes Reverend, records gospel. But his church soon receives a visit from the FBI because Reverend Mack Simmons was using his clergyman outfit to traffic drugs! Sentenced to long years in prison, Mack resumed his harmonica and the blues in the 90s, cutting Come Back To Me Baby on the Wolf label in 1994 and High And Lonesome for St. George Records the following year. But it was his 1997 Electro-Fi release, Little Mack Is Back, that proclaimed the revival of Simmons's career, reaping enthusiastic reviews from around the globe.
Similarly his last Electro-Fi CD, Somewhere On Down The Line, racked up worldwide acclaim as word spread that Little Mack Simmons is an artist who embodies the best of Chicago blues. In his later years Simmons played every Thursday night at Rosa's Lounge. After a long battle, Simmons died of colon cancer on October 24, 2000, in his adopted hometown of Chicago; he was 67.
(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic, Electro-Fi, Blue Eye & Center Stage Chicago)