The release includes Murphy's own lyrics to Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays's "September Fifteenth" and his original composition "Sausalito".

[1] Speaking about his favorite personal recordings with Ted Pankin years later, Murphy said, "I loved a ballad album I did for Fantasy called September Ballads, which includes that "Goodbye" song to Bill Evans and some beautiful pieces by writers of the '70s, which I'm very surprised that people who sing my type of songs don't pick up on.

Peter Jones says, "It's a soft, gentle album, richly melodic, played straight, with no unorthodox arrangements or challenging scat experiments".

[1] The recordings include "September Fifteenth" by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays which refers to the day in 1980 when Bill Evans died; Gary McFarland's "haunting"[1] "Sack Full of Dreams"; Richard Rodney Bennett's "I Never Went Away"; "Para Nada" ("For Nothing") by Brazilian singer and pianist Eliane Elias; and "a gentle, lilting new version" of Murphy's own Sausalito.

[1] Murphy was nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Male for September Ballads at the 31st annual Grammy Awards in 1988.

Peter Jones writes, "In February he [Murphy] had been briefly elated by the news that September Ballads had received a Grammy nomination - his fourth in the category Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Male.

[10] Scott Yanow includes the album in his list of "other worthy recordings" by Mark Murphy in his book The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide.

[11] The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music rates the release as good (3/5, meaning by the artist's usual standards and therefore recommended).

[7] The Penguin Guide to Jazz assigns 3 stars (meaning a good if middleweight set; one that lacks the stature or consistency of the finest records, but which is certainly rewarding on its own terms) and the review says.

[8] John Swenson, in The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide, assigns the album 4 stars (excellent) and writes, "Murphy's Milestone recordings are magnificent vocal sets: September Ballads collects what Murphy calls 'contemporary standards' that showcase his rich baritone and shrewd harmonic sense".

That's what he does in September Ballads, a quiet, tasteful album with superb accompaniments by a group that includes guitarist Larry Coryell and Art Farmer on flugelhorn.