"Unsquare Dance" (Dave Brubeck Quartet)

In 1959, the Dave Brubeck Quartet released the hugely successful Time Out—an album that proved it was feasible to play jazz in time signatures other than 3/4 and 4/4 and still retain the genre's heart and soul.  
In 1961, the band released the follow up, Time Further Out, which again explored tricky time signatures.  Like 7/4—the time signature of the track "Unsquare Dance."  
The title is an obvious play on "square dance," which if you attended a physical education class in the past 50 years, you no doubt were forced to perform under duress by a whistle-toting Johnny Unitas look-alike.
Just like the traditional music played at a square dance (or hoedown, if you will), "Unsquare Dance" has a folksy, two-step feel that seems readymade for do-si-do'ing and promenading.  Until you start to count it out, that is.  The twist is that extra beat at the end of each measure: 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3.
What starts out kind of hokey sounding ("square" in beatnik-speak), reveals itself to be a wildly inventive, funky exploration of rhythm, with bassist Eugene Wright playing a skeletal bassline over handclaps, and Joe Morello playing syncopated percussion on the rim of his snare drum.  
Even when Brubeck returns at the end of the song to do his little "shave-and-a-haircut" ending, it's with a knowing wink.