" data-original-title="" title="">Johannes Wallmann is better acquainted with both of those aforementioned truths than your average citizen. When he moved to Wisconsin in 2012, he had been in a legally-recognized same-sex marriage for five years. Neither Canada nor California sought to argue or deny the truths of that love while Wallman and his husband called each their home. Wisconsin, however, was another story. As Wallmann notes, the Badger State essentially viewed him and his husband as "legal strangers." But rather than simply accept the situation, he took action. Wallman challenged the legality of Wisconsin's laws relating to the subject, signing on with his husband as one of eight plaintiff couples in the landmark Wolf v. Walker case that ultimately bore out the fact that love wins.

This aptly-titled album takes inspiration and directional cues from that experience. Wallmann, teaming up with spoken word artist Rob Dz, traces and celebrates this struggle and triumph. Adopting a broader stance not limited to marriage equality, he addresses history, civil liberties on the whole, and societal issues stretching across a large canvas. In the strutting, NOLA-inflected "Equality!" opener, for example, Dz cites or references both the Stonewall Inn and Rosa Parks' seated stand before launching into an exploration of equality's meaning. Then, after instrumental rubato ruminations on "Preamble," Dz homes in on the topic at hand during the oft-vamping, comfortably-paced title track.

The voices of various soloists—Wallmann, trumpeter