Thelonious Monk is the best. But aside from “Round Midnight,” he didn’t really write the kind of songs you could sing. Or so I thought, until I found out about Carmen Sings Monk. It’s an entire album of Carmen McRae singing Monk tunes with lyrics by Jon Hendricks, Abbey Lincoln, and others. There are tunes here that you’d expect would work with lyrics (“Ruby My Dear,” “In Walked Bud”) and songs I never expected to hear sung (“Monk’s Dream,” “Pannonica.”) Carmen McRae was unquestionably the right woman for the job.