Gerald Sims, Chess Records session guitarist heard on Jackie Wilson’s ‘Higher and Higher,’ dead at 83

Gerald Sims played with musicians including Jackie Wilson, Etta James, Chuck Berry, Louis Armstrong, The Chi-Lites, Ramsey Lewis, Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart, Minnie Riperton, Jerry Butler and Nancy Wilson. (Provided)

As a session guitar player for Chess Records, Gerald Sims played with blues and soul royalty on hits that keep people grooving to this day — among them Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher” and Fontella Bass’s “Rescue Me.”

But his most important audience was often family.