As a pianist, Dabney is lockjaw stiff. But as producer, he has taken much of People of Peace into a more ethereal, world-music direction, with spare, ghostly chants, percussive echoes, and Nakai's flutes reverberating through a virtual kiva. Tracks like the haunting chant "E'she'no," complete with drum & bass break in the middle, and "Native Tongue," featuring the ambience of Will Clipman's udu drum, seem to have stronger centers. But the RCNQ usually throws in the kitchen sink with too many dirty dishes. --John Diliberto