We present methods and explicit formulas for describing simple weight modules over twisted generalized Weyl algebras. When a certain commutative subalgebra is finitely generated over an algebraically closed field we obtain a classification of a class of locally finite simple weight modules as those induced from simple modules over a subalgebra isomorphic to a tensor product of noncommutative tori. As an application we describe simple weight modules over the quantized Weyl algebra. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.