He was handsome, tall and a musician. The words after “was” describe he, the subject of the sentence.

He was a handsome, tall musician. Handsome and tall describe musician, which is information about him, the subject of then sentence.

Ultimately, the sentences are talking about the same thing using different ways of getting there.

The first sentence implies a hierarchy of importance, with handsome and tall being the emphasis, and the fact that he is a musician as an afterthought.
The second sentence has handsome and tall as mere attributes of the musician.

The second one emphasizes that he is a musician in my opinion. That’s how I would interpret it anyway.

They are both saying basically the same thing though.