Society honors black renditions of Jewish music

A society dedicated to the preservation of Jewish music is releasing an album of African-American renditions of Jewish songs.

The New York-based Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation is releasing “Black Sabbath: The Secret Musical History of Black-Jewish Relations” on Sept. 14. The 15-track album includes Billie Holiday’s rendition of My Yiddishe Momme, Cab Calloway singing in Yiddish and Nina Simone and Eartha Kitt singing in Hebrew.

The society is honoring Johnny Mathis, whose 1958 rendition of Kol Nidre leads the album, on Thursday at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.