Concerts: this week’s guide – from Bob Dylan to Joe Bonamassa and Roma Jazz

History, with a capital ‘H’, is once again knocking on the doors of concert-goers across Italia. The Menestrello di Duluth, the only musician ever to have won an Nobel Prize in Literature, is indeed returning to our part of the world. Bob Dylan is kicking off a three-date Italian leg of his ‘Eu/Uk Tour 2026’, the final part of the wider ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour’, which began in 2021 following the release of the album of the same name: on 2 November she will perform at the Unipol Dome in Milan, on 5 November at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome and on 7 November at the Unipol Arena in Bologna. A highly anticipated return that is, inevitably, set to be one of the most important live events of the year.

This is no ordinary time for fans of ‘His Bobness’, given that on 6 November, just as he is set to tour the length and breadth of Italy, The Rolling Thunder Revue: The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1976 Live Recordings, a 39-CD box set that documents in full the American tour of 50 years ago, full of surprises and guest appearances, to which Martin Scorsese dedicated a documentary that oscillates between myth and reality, chronicle and fantasy. Today’s Bob Dylan is very different from the theatrical (and even made-up, as in a vaudeville show) figure of The Rolling Thunder Revue: this time he ranges from To Be Alone with You, from Nashville Skyline, to Man in the Long Black Coat, taken from Oh Mercy, moving from the stripped-back folk of It Ain’t Me, Babe, one of his most famous (anti)ballads, to the self-deprecating When I Paint My Masterpiece, right through to the immortal anthem I Shall Be Released. And, if you’re lucky, there’ll also be time for All Along the Watchtower, a milestone in the history of rock. The Italian leg of Dylan’s tour will also adhere to the ‘phone-free’ policy, with the use of audience members’ smartphones ‘restricted’ during the performance.

If you’re a fan of the blues, don’t miss 4 November 2026 at the Unipol Forum in Assago for the only Italian date by Joe Bonamassa, one of the greatest guitarists of his generation. With four Grammy nominations, fifteen Blues Music Award nominations (resulting in four wins) and over fifty recordings to his name, he returns to us after a four-year absence on the back of the success of Breakthrough (2025), yet another album to top the American blues charts.

There are numerous events for jazz lovers, starting with the Roma Jazz Festival, a festival which, from 1 to 24 November, is celebrating its fiftieth edition at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, the Casa del Jazz and the Alcazar. The chosen theme, ‘Re-reading Miles, rethinking jazz’, pays tribute to the centenary of the birth of Miles Davis, a central figure in the redefinition of the genre as well as of 20th-century culture. Following the opening on 1 November, led by Paolo Fresu with the project Kind of Lives, on 5 November one of the most innovative musicians on the contemporary scene, Steve Coleman, takes to the stage with his Five Elements, a group that has been fusing jazz, funk, hip hop and radical improvisation for over thirty years. On 6 November, it will be the turn of a collaboration between two international virtuosos: the Brazilian mandolinist Hamilton de Holanda and the multi-award-winning Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, the stars of the Collab project, one of the most eagerly awaited concerts for Latin jazz enthusiasts (all three shows will take place at the Auditorium).

Another major event in the spirit of Miles is the autumn session of Pomigliano Jazz, a festival in Campania now in its 31st edition. On 3 November at the Teatro Gloria in Pomigliano d’Arco, the evening will open with Luis Di Gennaro on solo piano: Prima di Sketches explores the Spanish roots of the masterpiece by Miles Davis and Gil Evans. This will be followed by A New Sketches of Spain, which brings together the dance and choreography of Israel Galván with live music and arrangements by Michael Leonhart, marking the centenary of Davis’s birth. On 5 November, once again at the Teatro Gloria, the set by the Valentina Ranalli Quartet featuring Seta – a project combining original compositions and contemporary vocal jazz – will give way to Javier Girotto and Francesco Nastro, with a guest appearance by Hamilton de Holanda.