Try switching to Logback and use
ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger rootLogger = (ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger)LoggerFactory.getLogger(ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger.ROOT_LOGGER_NAME);
rootLogger.setLevel(Level.toLevel("info"));
I believe this will be the only call to Logback and the rest of your code will remain unchanged. Logback uses SLF4J and the migration will be painless, just the xml config files will have to be changed.
Remember to set the log level back after you're done.