The last straw for alto saxophonist Hal McKusick and pianist/composer/arranger George Handy came in late 1944, when bandleader Boyd Raeburn took away yet another one of Al Cohn's sax solos and gave it to rising star and alto saxophonist Johnny Bothwell. So Hal and Handy packed up their gear and left the band in Boston.
By this time, Hal had developed a p…
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