Two Turntables and a Saxophone

TTaaS, the collaboration of DJ Late Circuit's tasty grooves and samples and Thomas Krenzel Doggett's sax and flute expressions, thrilled audiences at past MPMFs.  Recent recordings include more samples and even a guest laying down some tasty guitar.  This duo can only get better.
- City Beat

Thomas Krenzel Doggett never guessed that one day he'd be playing festivals alongside a vinyl-scratching DJ. A classically trained musician, Doggett plays saxophone and flute, and he makes his living as a music teacher. But it's the unexpected influence of hip-hop on his music, by way of local DJ The Late Circuit, that made him realize his musical potential.

"(Playing with Late Circuit) gave me a new way of looking at my music - a completely different perspective," Doggett says.

When the two get together as Two Turntables and a Saxophone, their sound is experimental, jazzy, ambient hip-hop, in the vein of DJ Logic or DJ Shadow. "I'll play a solo line on flute and he'll answer it with scratching," Doggett says.

The Late Circuit's training was more trial and error; he bought some turntables after dropping out of NKU and started spinning at gigs for the fun of it, eventually getting regular appearances at local clubs.

The two met in 2002, just a week before Doggett's solo show at MidPoint. Late Circuit had heard Doggett's recordings, and after they talked, the two ended up playing an improvised set.

"Tommy's just such an open guy," Late Circuit says. "I'd been looking for somebody with an open mind to play with for a long time."

The musicians have a long-distance relationship - Late Circuit lives in Covington, and Doggett recently moved from his native Cincinnati to Iowa - and both have families. Their goals are not of the lofty travel-the-world sort. They just want to be heard and to make music for life.

"My mantra is longevity," Doggett says. "I want to be in music forever."

MidPoint has helped the band reach its goals in the past. In 2003, Doggett hooked up with Jon Delange of Minneapolis' Tinderbox Music, who got the band radio play on stations across the country.

Doggett says every new MidPoint is a chance to learn new things.

"The quote that I heard years ago that focused me is that there's no such thing as a big break, it's just a series of small little breaks," he says. "That clearly defines my MidPoint experience. I'm not going to go there and just explode. I'm going to go and make more contacts."

SEE 'EM AT MIDPOINT: 9 p.m. Friday at Jekyll & Hyde's, second floor
LEARN MORE: www.twoturntablesandasaxophone.com
- KARI WETHINGTON | CIN WEEKLY Wednesday, September 21, 2005

...songs where the Circuit and TKD are joined by guitarist Aaron Mahoney are among the disc's best. ...shows off TTaaS's all-important ability to create a sultry mood. The epic "Getting There"'s steady drum 'n' bass beat provides a solid floor for atmospheric eddies of guitar, meshing surprisingly well with more organic elements such as chimes and TKD's birdlike saxophone; despite its lengthiness, it's an engaging track.
- Splendid Magazine-- Sarah Zachrich

Two Turntables and a Saxophone

(Cincinnati) DJ/Acid Jazz

Beautiful experimental Trip Hop is the result of this collaboration between turntablist the late circuit and Jazz woodwinder Tommy D. Most offerings are better suited for grooving than raving, with samples and instrumental phrases dominating lush soundscapes. A disc is forthcoming from the duo.

Dig It: DJ Shadow, Groove Collective, Enigma (EW) - City Beat

MidPoint's Top 20
Here's who to see if you want to catch
two acts every hour of the festival.

MidPoint, now in its third year of celebrating independent music of all genres, offers dozens of showcases Friday and Saturday at 15 venues in Cincinnati's Main Street club district
Here's an hour-by-hour rundown of some MidPoint performers, both locals and out-of-towners, that you won't want to miss. (We've provided two choices for each time slot, since the venues are close enough to allow festival-goers to take in more than one showcase each hour.)

Friday 10 p.m.: Two Turntables and a Saxophone, jazz-meets-classical-meets-electronica beats (Cincinnati), Lava. - Cincinnati Enquirer