Berkeley - Richie Cole got a rousing cheer from the crowd of 9,000 jazz fans as he said, "If I had a say in things, this whole festival would be dedicated to Eddie Jefferson."

Jefferson, who provided the high point of last year's festival and who was scheduled to appear Sunday at the 13th Berkeley Jazz Festival, was killed three weeks ago.

Saxophonist sidekick Cole carried on Sunday with a hot band, plenty of bebop, and one of the more surprising events of the festival: a chorus from Foothill College, singing "In the Still of the Night" and "I'm in the Mood for Love," while Cole blew pure and sweet around their voices.

Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie told how when he performed at the White House last year and President Carter requested bop classic "Salt Peanuts," Gillespie responded, "We'll play it if you'll sing it."

Gillespie once ran for the presidency, so it is no surprise that Carter sang along Sunday afternoon. Dizzy got the jazz fans to do the same.

Such unexpected touches helped make this the best Berkeley Jazz Festival in memory.

All three days' shows started on time and ended when scheduled. The lighting and sound were excellent, waiting time between acts was shorter than the performing time.

Best of all, the choice of musicians provided a good mix of currently popular bands with local talent and more traditional artists.

Berkeley has always been one of the top half-dozen jazz festivals in the nation, but after this weekend it is hard to imagine even the Monterey Festival topping it.

Friday night's show was the only one not sold out. Singers Betty Carter and Al Jarreau, saxophonist John Klemmer and drummer Tony Williams led their groups through a cold but pleasant evening.

Bay Area performers opened each show. Saturday Berkeley pianist Art Lande rounded up his Rubisa Patrol to play the most free-form music of the festival, and the audience accepted it warmly.

Sunday 20-year-old Eastbay pianist Rodney Franklin introduced a teen-age band that provided more funk and soul than jazz. He was followed by Ukiah guitarist Robben Ford, who has cut his teeth playing with Joni Mitchell and Jimmy Witherspoon, and still is best at blues-based workouts.

The more traditional sounds Saturday and Sunday came from saxophonist Sonny Rollins and trumpeter-conga player-singer-dancer Dizzy Gillespie. While Gillespie stuck to the form he helped invent—bebop—Rollins tried newer things. Rollins kept his set mostly uptempo and hard-blowing. Dizzy ranged from fast to funny to very slow, but always tasteful.

Gillespie is also this year's inductee into the Jazz Festival's Hall of Fame.

Young up-and-coming musicians were represented by guitarist Pat Metheny and alto saxophonist Cole.

On Saturday Metheny spent most of his nearly two hours onstage playing new compositions cowritten with keyboardist Lyle Mays. Metheny fits his pretty guitarwork into his quartet with a light, melodic style that makes it individual in a field overglutted with hot-shot guitar stars.

Cole now carries on without singer Eddie Jefferson, but the show Sunday stuck close to what the duo had planned, including an appearance by the dozen Foothill College Fanfairs, a singing group Jefferson said was the best school chorus he'd seen.

Weather Report was the reason most of the audience had come to Saturday's festival. The quartet is one of the most advanced and exciting acts in either rock or jazz.

At Weather Report's last local show followers of the combo had been disappointed by the overabundance of bombast and underabundance of playing from saxophonist Wayne Shorter.

While the fog machines were used, there were quieter moments and Shorter stepped out to blow on nearly every tune, from "In a Silent Way" and "Boogie Woogie Waltz" to "Birdland" and other new tunes.

Jaco Pastorius on bass added a light touch to Shorter and keyboardist Joe Zawinul's overserious demeanor.

Joni Mitchell is not strictly a jazz artist, either, but she was the reason Sunday's show was the first to sell out.

With accompaniment by Herbie Hancock, Pastorius, Tony Williams and percussionist Don Alias, she presented nearly the same song selection as at last September's Bread and Roses Festival.

Most of them were from her upcoming collaboration album with the late Charles Mingus. But the set was less than 45 minutes long, and the audience was loudly vocal about wanting more.

Overall, it was a finely balanced and well-run three-day event that should help blot out the frequent lack of jazz sense in lineups and slipshod stage management that has made past shows memorable for the wrong reasons.