WHO'S WHO ?

Like most of Scofield's early solo album, Who's Who is a mix of gentle electric jazz and some steamier jazz-rock/fusion, but the title could be a bit misleading, because if it features two different line-ups, it's definitely not an endless star-studded-cast appearances album either. So four of the sic tracks are played by a quintet that includes Kirkland on keys and Figuros on percussions, while the remaining two feature a quartet with Liebman on sax.

Actually either formation present on the album don't specifically present a major sonic difference (as in smoother or rockier) from the other, as both indulge in gentler electrified jazz (Meringue; Beatles, Spoons) or more nervous material (Cassidae, the title track, HTWWW), all of them over the 5-mins mark. In general, Scofield joins the Metheny, late-70's Coryell, Abercrombie & Phil Catherine types of guitarists, whose albums of that era presented a wide array of influences and style, and might lack a bit of a cohesive musical direction, so you can't say that you weren't warned.

BTW, there is a CD version with a slightly altered artwork that comprises a series of four bonus tracks with a different formation from a session of the following year, this time a trio, with Swallow on bass and Nussbaum on drums, and actually they sound much like the rest of the album (unsurprisingly since Bingham and Scofield produced both sessions), so it's great added value to fine but definitely calm and cool fusion album. Not quite essential to the JR/F genre, but it's a nice consolidation stone to it.