Thanks for the link to the Steinbeck article. Steinbeck is valuable. There were occasional exceptions to the general rule that Fred improvised entire performances, like 2 evenings when he played Ornette Coleman songs - once when he and Hamid played with Charlie Haden, once when he helped me peddle my Ornette book. Uli, how long did Fred and Ajaramu play together (beginning sometime in the '80s) and were they playing Fred's own songs some of the time?