diff --git a/math/build.sbt b/math/build.sbt
index 3c89ed3da..3cf1cf474 100644
--- a/math/build.sbt
+++ b/math/build.sbt
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ libraryDependencies ++= Seq(
   "com.github.rwl" % "jtransforms" % "2.4.0",
   "org.apache.commons" % "commons-math3" % "3.2",
   "org.spire-math" %% "spire" % "0.7.4",
+  "org.slf4j" % "slf4j-api" % "1.7.5",
   "org.scalacheck" %% "scalacheck" % "1.11.3" % "test",
   "org.scalatest" %% "scalatest" % "2.1.3" % "test",
   "org.scala-lang.modules" % "scala-xml_2.11" % "1.0.1" % "test",
@@ -68,11 +69,9 @@ libraryDependencies ++= Seq(
 libraryDependencies <<= (scalaVersion, libraryDependencies) { (sv, deps) =>
   sv match {
     case x if x startsWith "2.10" =>
-      (deps :+ ("com.typesafe.scala-logging" %% "scala-logging-slf4j" % "2.1.2")
-           :+ ("com.chuusai" %% "shapeless" % "2.0.0" % "test" cross CrossVersion.full))
+      (deps :+ ("com.chuusai" %% "shapeless" % "2.0.0" % "test" cross CrossVersion.full))
     case x if x.startsWith("2.11") =>
-      (deps :+ ("com.typesafe.scala-logging" %% "scala-logging-slf4j" % "2.1.2")
-           :+ ("com.chuusai" %% "shapeless" % "2.0.0" % "test"  ))
+      (deps :+ ("com.chuusai" %% "shapeless" % "2.0.0" % "test"  ))
     case _       =>
       deps
   }
diff --git a/math/src/main/scala/breeze/linalg/operators/CSCMatrixOps.scala b/math/src/main/scala/breeze/linalg/operators/CSCMatrixOps.scala
index 920af62d4..b677d8723 100644
--- a/math/src/main/scala/breeze/linalg/operators/CSCMatrixOps.scala
+++ b/math/src/main/scala/breeze/linalg/operators/CSCMatrixOps.scala
@@ -278,7 +278,7 @@ trait CSCMatrixOps extends CSCMatrixOpsLowPrio {  this: CSCMatrix.type =>
         require(rows == b.rows, "Matrices must have same number of rows!")
         require(cols == b.cols, "Matrices must have same number of cols!")
 
-        if (cols == 0 || rows == 0) return Unit
+        if (cols == 0 || rows == 0) return
 
         var ci      = 0             // column index [0 ... cols)
         var apStop  = a.colPtrs(0)  // pointer into row indices and data
diff --git a/math/src/main/scala/breeze/optimize/GradientTester.scala b/math/src/main/scala/breeze/optimize/GradientTester.scala
index 2c22ecb70..67d171379 100644
--- a/math/src/main/scala/breeze/optimize/GradientTester.scala
+++ b/math/src/main/scala/breeze/optimize/GradientTester.scala
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import breeze.linalg.support.CanCopy
 import breeze.linalg.{norm, Tensor, NumericOps}
 import breeze.linalg.operators.{OpSub, BinaryOp}
 import breeze.stats.distributions.Rand
-import com.typesafe.scalalogging.slf4j.LazyLogging
+import breeze.util.SerializableLogging
 
 /**
  * Class that compares the computed gradient with an empirical gradient based on
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ import com.typesafe.scalalogging.slf4j.LazyLogging
  *
  * @author dlwh
  */
-object GradientTester extends LazyLogging {
+object GradientTester extends SerializableLogging {
   /**
    * Tests a gradient by comparing the gradient to the empirically calculated gradient from finite differences,
    * returning those that are bad, logging bad ones on WARN, ok ones on DEBUG, and overall statistics on INFO.
diff --git a/math/src/main/scala/breeze/signal/support/CanConvolve.scala b/math/src/main/scala/breeze/signal/support/CanConvolve.scala
index 9a9e0ce22..4cefd5999 100644
--- a/math/src/main/scala/breeze/signal/support/CanConvolve.scala
+++ b/math/src/main/scala/breeze/signal/support/CanConvolve.scala
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import breeze.signal.OptRange.RangeOpt
 import breeze.numerics.isOdd
 import breeze.signal.OptRange.RangeOpt
 import scala.reflect.ClassTag
-import com.typesafe.scalalogging.slf4j.LazyLogging
+import breeze.util.SerializableLogging
 
 //ToDo 1: provide convolve of Integer and other DenseVectors
 //ToDo 1: provide convolve of DenseMatrix
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ trait CanConvolve[Input, KernelType, Output] {
  *
  * @author ktakagaki
  */
-object CanConvolve extends LazyLogging {
+object CanConvolve extends SerializableLogging {
 
   @expand
   @expand.valify
@@ -186,8 +186,7 @@ object CanConvolve extends LazyLogging {
         require( data.length * kernel.length != 0, "data and kernel must be non-empty DenseVectors")
         require( data.length >= kernel.length, "kernel (" + kernel.length + ") cannot be longer than data(" + data.length + ") to be convolved/correlated!")
         require( range.start >= 0 && range.last <= (data.length - kernel.length + 1),
-          logger.error("range (start {}, end {}, step {}, inclusive {}) is OOB for data (length {}) and kernel (length {})!",
-            range.start.toString, range.end.toString, range.step.toString, range.isInclusive.toString, data.length.toString, kernel.length.toString )
+          logger.error(s"range (start ${range.start}, end ${range.end}, step ${range.step}, inclusive ${range.isInclusive}) is OOB for data (length ${data.length}) and kernel (length ${kernel.length})!")
         )
 
         val dataVect = data.toScalaVector() //make immutable
@@ -217,8 +216,7 @@ object CanConvolve extends LazyLogging {
         require( data.length * kernel.length != 0, "data and kernel must be non-empty DenseVectors")
         require( data.length >= kernel.length, "kernel cannot be longer than data to be convolved/corelated!")
         require( range.start >= 0 && range.last <= (data.length - kernel.length + 1),
-          logger.error("range (start {}, end {}, step {}, inclusive {}) is OOB for data (length {}) and kernel (length {})!",
-            range.start.toString, range.end.toString, range.step.toString, range.isInclusive.toString, data.length.toString, kernel.length.toString )
+          logger.error(s"range (start ${range.start}, end ${range.end}, step ${range.step}, inclusive ${range.isInclusive}) is OOB for data (length ${data.length}) and kernel (length ${kernel.length})!")
         )
 
         val dataL = convert(data, Long).toScalaVector() //make immutable
diff --git a/math/src/main/scala/breeze/util/Logger.scala b/math/src/main/scala/breeze/util/Logger.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5dee0051b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/math/src/main/scala/breeze/util/Logger.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+package breeze.util
+
+import org.slf4j.Logger
+
+/**
+ * A logger that only evaluates parameters lazily if the corresponding log level is enabled.
+ */
+class LazyLogger(log: Logger) extends Serializable {
+
+  def info(msg: => String) {
+    if (log.isInfoEnabled) log.info(msg)
+  }
+
+  def debug(msg: => String) {
+    if (log.isDebugEnabled) log.debug(msg)
+  }
+
+  def trace(msg: => String) {
+    if (log.isTraceEnabled) log.trace(msg)
+  }
+
+  def warn(msg: => String) {
+    if (log.isWarnEnabled) log.warn(msg)
+  }
+
+  def error(msg: => String) {
+    if (log.isErrorEnabled) log.error(msg)
+  }
+
+  def info(msg: => String, throwable: Throwable) {
+    if (log.isInfoEnabled) log.info(msg, throwable)
+  }
+
+  def debug(msg: => String, throwable: Throwable) {
+    if (log.isDebugEnabled) log.debug(msg, throwable)
+  }
+
+  def trace(msg: => String, throwable: Throwable) {
+    if (log.isTraceEnabled) log.trace(msg, throwable)
+  }
+
+  def warn(msg: => String, throwable: Throwable) {
+    if (log.isWarnEnabled) log.warn(msg, throwable)
+  }
+
+  def error(msg: => String, throwable: Throwable) {
+    if (log.isErrorEnabled) log.error(msg, throwable)
+  }
+}
diff --git a/math/src/main/scala/breeze/util/SerializableLogging.scala b/math/src/main/scala/breeze/util/SerializableLogging.scala
index 6b0b8af61..799f8f4ae 100644
--- a/math/src/main/scala/breeze/util/SerializableLogging.scala
+++ b/math/src/main/scala/breeze/util/SerializableLogging.scala
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 package breeze.util
 
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory
-import com.typesafe.scalalogging.slf4j.Logger
-
 
 /**
  * Stupid Typesafe logging lib trait isn't serializable. This is just a better version.
@@ -11,15 +9,15 @@ import com.typesafe.scalalogging.slf4j.Logger
  **/
 trait SerializableLogging extends Serializable {
   @transient @volatile
-  private var _the_logger:Logger = null
+  private var _the_logger: LazyLogger = null
 
-  def logger: Logger = {
+  protected def logger: LazyLogger = {
     var logger = _the_logger
     if(logger eq null) {
       synchronized {
         logger = _the_logger
         if(logger eq null) {
-          val ll = Logger(LoggerFactory.getLogger(this.getClass))
+          val ll = new LazyLogger(LoggerFactory.getLogger(this.getClass))
           _the_logger = ll
           logger = ll
         }